May 3, 2020 — Former Hajduk captain Ivan Gudelj talked with Jutarnji List about his days in self-isolation over 30 years ago.
Congratulations on your candidacy for the City of Split Award for Personal Achievement. How do you feel in that respectable company as a Hajduk captain and national team player?
I feel that we have earned this award and that they respect us in social engagements, which is often not easy in Split. Being a member of the Society of Liver Illnesses and the Hepatos Association and their ambassador, they nominated me for a reward for what we did last year in educating, preventing, and helping our members.
Recently you spoke about your most difficult challenge, an illness that ended your career. How did you experience it?
A boy from the small town of Zmijavci comes to the big city of Split, to a big, special club, Hajduk, and then by the age of 26, all his dreams come true. He becomes the captain of Hajduk, the Yugoslav national team, has the whole world in front of him, and then in a single second, he is shocked by an illness and loses it all. It happened because of viral hepatitis, inflammation of the liver, an insidious and serious illness that I had to end my career,
What was on your mind then?
I was thinking of escaping to Tibet but I realized that if you leave the illness won’t go away because you carry the virus with you. You have to control it yourself.
For the first eight months, when the disease was in an acute phase, I spent a total of six months in quarantine at the hospital “Fran Mihaljević”, and then for three months, I visited bioenergetics and herbs of the former Yugoslavia. Whatever someone told me as an alternative treatment, I tried.
It certainly helped me. I was also in Germany, treated with macrobiotics, prayer, and despite all these visits I lived in isolation.
However, did you make a mistake?
Yes, after three years I realized that I needed to socialize and that I had to deal with this situation. When I look back, I was able to control the vicious disease. I tried to train multiple times and experienced a relapse. That was a mistake.
In a movie and in a book, it is recorded how you went through a difficult time because many people avoided you because of the stigma of the disease?
There were all sorts of stuff. When I went to Zagreb, at the time, many types of hepatitis were not yet known, so I was asked why I did not do the tests in Split. As a public figure, I was also associated with AIDS. They were running away from me, and one acquaintance walked into a pole when he was supposed to meet me because he couldn’t believe I was walking down the road.
Although I was saying something on live television, many people wondered if it was lies because who knows what I’m into. So now I testify from my example that it is a virus that is unexplored and dangerous, and ours is only to shy away from isolation.
Who was your comfort and assistance in isolation?
First of all, faith in God, because I think I have found peace and spirituality. A young man thinks that nobody can do anything for him. But when an illness occurs, then new people, friends, and acquaintances appear to help you. For me, it was first and foremost a wife with whom I had just started a family with two daughters. We fought together.
That is why it is still important today that we follow the instructions of the Civil Society staff dealing with viruses and know what measures are recommended for us. Most people take it seriously. The other part is perceived as a conspiracy, and the third is young people who think that no one can do anything to them. Am I not a sufficient example to them?
That both the movie “Ivan’s Play” and book “My Hajduk Story” testify to this, and let them be informed. We’re left with little room for football. You have been active in working with young national teams. What is the most important thing for players in this formative period as many later disappear into the vortex of transfers and manager demands?
Today is a relentless law of the market and a completely new era. Big clubs have been investing in talent searches in Europe and the world for decades, having their own schools and managers that track the talents from the youngest ages. Unfortunately, we are doomed to sell our talents, and when they leave early, it is not good for the club or their development.
When you compare those old romantics of the seventies and eighties with those that sold for billions, I wonder how much these would earn. Where is football going?
Football used to be romantic. It was played by poor children. Many more were individuals, and now the collective part is prevailing. It is always the decision of the qualified individual, and how much he or she is paid depends on a market dictated by big clubs. Same as it was then, but with less zeros.
Which players from the past and future of Hajduk would you like to play with?
When I came from Zmijavci as a 15-year-old boy to Hajduk and all my dreams came true, Jurica Jerkovic. My ideal squad is – Simovic, who was great, but so can Katalinic when you hit. From now on, there is no doubt – Jarni, Djoni, Vulic, Buljan, Baka, Jure and Asanovic midfield, in the attack by Surjak, Boksic and Zlatko Vujovic.
How did Hajduk players experience these traumas of dramatic relegation defeats in other games?
There were a lot of these shocking endings. As a player, I was just a part of it and experienced some setbacks. Even though I was in the generation that was coming out and we could have been the champions of Europe in quality, but we were kicking against Hamburg and then Tottenham and even Waregem. I often think about those games and if I came back as Superman now, it would all be won and deservedly so.
