Sinisa Mihajlovic: Nesta and Mancini’s pain.

The two former Lazio teammates recalled the Serbian coach

Two former Lazio greats, Roberto Mancini and Alessandro Nesta, remembered Sinisa Mihajlovic, who passed away at the age of 53 after a battle with leukemia: “This is a day I never wanted to live, because I have lost a friend with whom I shared almost 30 years of my life, on and off the field,” wrote the Azzurri coach, whose deputy Mihajlovic was in his Inter days.

“It is not fair that such an atrocious disease took away a 53-year-old guy who fought until the last moment like a lion, as he was used to doing on the field. And that is exactly how Sinisa will forever remain by my side, even if he is gone, as he did in Genoa, in Rome, in Milan and then even when we went our separate ways.”

Nesta, a former teammate and wardmate in his Lazio days, wanted to remember him this way: “Mister, you were a warrior. An example for all of us and especially for me…. I will never forget you.”