It was supposed to be the night of the biggest derby in the Croatian female handball, the Podravka Vegeta – Lokomotiva game. His team won, although they’ve recently suffered a series of defeats, with the final score 32:29. After the game, Zlatko Saračević gave a statement to the Croatian media, and right after leaving the venue of the game, he got sick and was swiftly taken to the Koprivnica hospital. Index.hr writes about the events of the night, taking their story from podravski.hr. According to them, the doctors tried to resuscitate Saračević for 40 minutes, but they had to admit defeat in the end.
Zlatko Saračević, Sarač as he was known for years among the handball fans in Croatia, was born on July 5th, 1961 in Banja Luka. He played for several clubs in former Yugoslavia, and then went to play for several French clubs in the early nineties. He came back to play for Zagreb in 1997, and finished his active playing career in 2003. He was a Olympic gold medalist with the Croatian team in Atalanta in 1996, and a bronze-medal winner in 1988 for team Yugoslavia in Seoul. He was also a World champion and a silver-medal holder.
After his active career was over, he started his coaching career, during which he coached numerous teams, including his former teams Zagreb and Zamet, as well as Dubrovnik and a period as an assistant coach of the Croatian national team. For the past 3 seasons, he was the coach of the Podravka Vegeta handball team, the most successful club in Croatian women’s handball.
