In the early hours of this morning, in England's match against Slovenia, there was a moving scene.
With 75 minutes played, Slovenia held up their substitutions. Appearing on the sidelines was 36-year-old Ilicic.
From being a late bloomer to suffering from depression, from a broken clock to a nightmare...... It took four years for Ilicic to return to the national team and make his first appearance at the European Championships.
21 years old, ready to retire
Speaking of which, Ilicic has been a hard-working child since he was a child. He was born in January 1988 in the former Yugoslav city of Prigedor, a city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When he was one year old, his father died of murder. For as long as he can remember, his ears have been filled with the sounds of war in the Balkans and the sirens blaring in the cities. In order to escape the war, his mother took him and his brother Igor from place to place, and finally settled in Slovenia.
There, Ilicic finally started a relatively normal childhood. Because of his love of football, Ilicic joined the academy of the old club Triglav at the age of seven, and ten years later began to travel to small and medium-sized clubs around the world to dream of being a professional footballer. At the age of 18, he played in the Slovenian second division at Bernifeka. At the age of 19, the International Bullock Club bought him and played in the Sliga for two years. At the age of 21, he is ready to end his playing career......
Yes?
No way, Inter Blok was relegated in 2010. In Slovenia, the second division is only a semi-professional league, and Ilicic is only a substitute for the team, so there is no way to support his family. So, he began to look for a new job in the newspaper, ready to give up his unrealistic football dream.
However, a few weeks later, a sudden phone call changed his entire life.
The other party said straight to the point: "I think you are the most promising genius in the country, are you interested in becoming the next me?" ”
"Which one are you?"
"Zakhovich."
Yes, it was the former thigh of the Slovenian national team who called. And the thigh's position at the time was: sports director of the Sliga giants Maribor FC.
It only took five minutes for Ilicic to accept the offer and immediately began packing his bags for the nearest train to Maribor. He then played only five games in Maribor before being poached by the Serie A club Palermo......
Yes?
That's right, it's that fast. Before the Europa League qualifying play-offs, Palermo sent scouts to watch a Maribor game, mainly to find out the opposition. The scout didn't bring home much of a tactical report at the time, but he was full of praise for Iličić. That match was Iličić's European debut for Maribor, and he scored twice. Later, against Palermo, Ilicic shone again and scored a goal to help the team win 3-2.
So, Palermo immediately made a decision: "Buy him!" ”
The day after the match between the two teams, Palermo finalized the transfer of Ilicic for 2.3 million euros. At this point, it had only been a month and a half since he signed with Maribor......
From Palermo to true blue-black
When Ilicic first arrived in the Apennines, everyone quickly understood why Palermo was so happy to pay for it.
With a height of 190cm, he has all the advantages of a former Yugoslav player. People are tall and big, and they are not afraid of close confrontation; Delicate technique, good at playing defenders with various emergency stops and heels; It has a wide field of vision and can send penetrating straight stoppers to teammates; He has a balanced left and right foot, is good at grabbing points and can throw out a heavy cannon with fast ball speed.
All of the above reminds one of the descendants of another Slavic people, Ibrahimovich.
But as time went on, it became clear that Ilicic would not become the next Ibrahimovic. Because he is 1.9 meters tall and loves to play flowers. The center is a center, who can't head the ball and can't be the fulcrum; As a winger, he is not fast and often loses the ball in a wild show.
From Palermo to Fiorentina, Ilicic has always been labeled as "flashy", "king of highlights", "less than the top is more than enough", and has even been scolded by the home team fans on the sidelines. So, scoring a goal in three or four games, averaging one or two jugglers and one or two missteps per game, he wasted time until he was thirty years old.
In the 2017-18 season, Ilicic moved to Atalanta.
At the time, everyone thought that this guy was just going to the real blue and black to eat a pension contract.
However, he never expected that he accidentally stepped into the peak.
A new pinnacle of thirty years
In Atalanta, Ilicic was lucky enough to meet coach Gasperini.
In the manager's 3-4-1-2 system, Ilicic is basically on the right side of the two-striker, with the main area of activity at the edge of the opposition penalty area on the right flank. In this position, he can give full play to his delicate skills and good passing and shooting, and to a certain extent, he also covers up the shortcomings of not being fast and conceding more balls.
- When switching from defense to offense, Ilicic's retreat to catch the ball and turn to push can speed up the team. If the offense is controlled by Gomez, the heart of the team, he can also find the right point of contact with his running position, and use his footwork and confrontation to complete the attack. Imagine how desperate a defender would be when a guy who can protect the ball, is very delicate, is full of imagination, and can shoot left and right, receives the ball at the top of the arc?
Not only did the offense give him plenty of freedom, but Gasperini also arranged a right central midfielder to help him with the ball when Ilicic dropped back to receive the ball, which could make up for it when he showed off.
In short, Gasperini's meticulous design of various links has given Ilicic the most room for play and error. And Ilicic also gave the team enough rewards.
- In the 2017-28 season, he dished out 15 goals and 10 assists
- In the 2018-19 season, he dished out 13 goals and 10 assists.
——In the 2019-20 season, he stepped into the peak of his career at the age of 32. In the 5-0 thrashing of Milan, he scored two shots and one pass; In the second leg of the Champions League 1/8 final against Valencia, he scored four goals and became the oldest senior player in the history of the Champions League. With just eight months to go of the season, he has 21 goals and five assists – just as some of the biggest clubs are gearing up for an inquiry......
The pandemic came, and the league was shut down.
The good news is that Serie A has restarted after just over three months.
The bad news is that Ilicic is not back.
He was sick.
During the pandemic, Ilicic contracted the new crown and became seriously ill. This sent fear into his heart, as he had been diagnosed with a lymph node infection, a disease that was at risk of becoming cancerous, and that his Fiorentina team-mate Astori had died suddenly in his sleep. Later, Ilicic recalled, "During that time, I didn't dare to sleep, I was afraid that I would not wake up in the morning and never see my family again. ”
Born into a fatherless family, Ilicic has experienced too much discrimination and displacement, so he has always valued his family very much. Especially after having two daughters, he has been spending as much time as possible with his family, wanting to be a proud father of his children.
However, when the Bergamo region, where Atlanta was located, was the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, when the news of the death of a friend came and the sirens sounded in the city, Ilicic went from anxiety to collapse.
Children who grew up in the flames of war are always unable to get out of psychological fear. He was afraid that he would be terminally ill, and even more afraid that he would lose his young daughter. All this, in the end, led to Ilicic falling into the abyss of depression.
In August 2020, ahead of Atalanta's Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain, Gasperini visited Ilicic in the hospital. "When I saw Ilicic, I was very surprised. He lost about 10 to 12 kilograms, and I picked him up like a puppet and said to him, 'Come on, Josip, come with us, let's try again......'"
Even though a few years have passed, Gasperini's voice still sobs when he recalls it. Because at that time, Ilicic was lying in bed and could not even walk normally.
A few months later, Ilicic was finally back on the court. After being discharged from the hospital, he donated his goal against Valencia to the hospital in Bergamo to show his gratitude to the doctors and paramedics.
In the 2021-22 season, Ilicic once again wore the Nerazzurri, with four goals and five assists in 24 appearances. But in January 2022, his depression returned. That saw him miss all the rest of the season and only came off the bench in the final league game at the end of the season.
At the end of the season, Atalanta and Ilicic agreed that their contracts would be terminated in August 2022.
That year, he was 34 years old.
From Maribor to returning to the national team
After leaving Atlanta, many predicted that Ilicic would end his career.
But after a few months of recuperation, he decided to get back on the field.
In October 2022, Ilicic signed for Maribor, the place where Zakhovic once gave him his dreams. He made his debut again for Maribor in November and scored a penalty after 12 minutes as a substitute. But things didn't go well, and the team's head coach at the time, Klzner, even expelled Ilicic from the team at one point, saying bluntly, "His current body is not fit to help the team." ”
After returning to China to play, Ilicic, who had been absent for a long time, was seriously out of shape
However, a year later, Kirzner was sacked by the team and replaced him as manager. When Ilicic first joined Maribor 12 years ago, Simonza was part of the coaching staff.
One of the first things Shimonza did after taking the reins was to bring Ilicic back to the team. So, Ilicic broke out again. He's scored again, he's got another assist – in 2023-24, Ilicic made 35 appearances for the team, contributing 10 goals and eight assists.
All this was seen by Slovenian coach Keke.
In May, Kekli defied the crowd and re-recruited the 36-year-old Ilicic to the national team.
On June 4, in Slovenia's friendly against Armenia, Ilicic came off the bench in the 59th minute – his first appearance for his country in almost three years. Three minutes later, he received the ball on the right side of the penalty area, then cut inside and swung his legs...... Score a goal.
Twenty-two days later, Ilicic was on the field at the European Championships. In the 75th minute of the third group game, he came on as a substitute. To the applause of the Slovenian fans, he completed his first European Championship match.
Yes, this is Slovenia's first chance to compete in a World Series since the 2010 World Cup, so Ilicic made his major debut at the age of 36.
In fact, when the European Championship roster was finalized, many people were talking about Ilicic's selection. Because he did not represent the team in the qualifiers, some people say that he is stealing the jobs of young people, some people say that he came to the European Championship just to be a mascot for the team, but his teammates who get along with him have a high opinion of Ilicic.
Defender Del Kusic said: "He's a good player and he's still showing magic on the pitch. ”
Striker Mlakar said: "I'm so happy he's back. When I joined Fiorentina at the age of 16, it was Ilicic who took me to dinner and helped me settle in. ”
In fact, whether it is criticism or praise, it may not matter to Ilicic now. He almost gave up football at the age of 21, was a late bloomer at the age of 30, and was just at the peak of his career when he was devastated by a series of diseases...... Along the way, no one knows how much torture Ilicic went through.
Ilicic celebrates with his teammates to qualify from the group
Illicic rarely spoke to the media about how he overcame his illness.
That's what life is all about. When we are young, we even have to be earth-shattering with sentimentality. As we grow up, we learn to be patient. A lot of times, growing up is about muting your crying. The more painful it is, the more silent it is. The more bitter, the more silent.
Fortunately, Ilicic has not given up on himself. For the sake of his family and football, he burned his life to respond to the world, and finally stood on the stage of the European Cup.
For Ilicic, it was a pretty happy ending.
Awake in a nightmare, composing an unfinished song to be continued.
Then, continue to run on the green field and enjoy a healthy breath.