Zlatan Saracevic, Olympic champion and one of the legends of Yugoslav and Croatian handball, has died at 59 years of age after suffering a heart attack at the end of a match of the team he coached.
The former international of the Yugoslav and Croatian teams died on Sunday night in Koprivnica hospital of a heart attack after the team he was coach of, Podravka Vegeta, beat Lokomotiva 32-29 in the great duel of the Croatian women’s league.
Among the greatest achievements of Saracevic, who was ambidextrous, featured gold in the 1986 World Cup in Switzerland, with Yugoslavia, and the 1996 Olympic gold in Atlanta with the selection of Croatia.
He also won the bronze with the Yugoslav national team at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and, with Croatia, silver at the 1995 World Cup in Iceland and the bronze in the European of Portugal of 1994.
He was a player for clubs such as Borac, Medvescak, Girondins de Bordeaux HBC or Badel 1862 Zagreb, and coached clubs like the Hungarian Nyíregyhazi, Dubrovnik or PPD Zagreb.