2023-07-22 14:07:21
the basketball player Nikola Mirotic, whose contract was terminated by Barcelona this week, has given up on continuing his career in Serbia. The power forward, born in Podgorica (Montenegro), had been receiving threats from Serbian fans of KK Partizan, a team led by Zeljko Obradovic.
Mirotic, through a publication on his Instagram account, has admitted that the increasing harassment to which he was being subjected forces him to take another course: “Threats and insults came to me that surprised me a lot and hurt me. I don’t want to be a person who divides people”.
There are still those in Serbia who insist on remembering Mirotic, not only his Montenegrin origin (Montenegro became independent from Serbia in 2006), but also an episode that the former Barça and Real Madrid player treated as a misunderstanding. In the 2015 European Championship, and Mirotic was wearing the Spanish team shirt in a match against Italy, a fan tried to prevent him from entering the locker room with a Serbian flag. Mirotic always explained that he did not know what that cloth was, but it ended up tearing it. “Breaking the Serbian flag is an unacceptable actwhoever it is who does it and in what situation they act”, the Serbian Basketball Federation then cried.
In any case, Mirotic, who had also been tempted to continue his career at Red Star, makes it clear that the threats have only come from Partizan fans. “For the sake of truth, I have to mention that no threat has come from the Red Star and that I have always had good communication with them, full of respect”.
“In addition, I want to point out that my desire to play for a team in Serbia was not conditioned by financial offers or by the colors of any club. I wanted to play in the country I love, but things just didn’t go that way.. I would like to thank Partizan for their confidence and their desire to be part of the team, but still I decided that the best thing for my family and for me is to continue my career in one of the European teams outside of Serbia”, continues Mirotic, also hurt by the continuing information that speculates on his future.
Barcelona made the termination of Mirotic’s contract official on July 20, arguing its decision in the feasibility plan that should allow the entity to solve its problems with the financial ‘fair play’ of LaLiga football.
The Partizan responds
Partizan did not sit idly by, and used another statement to respond to Mirotic, reproaching him for not signing a three-year contract that, according to the Serbian club, had already been agreed, and demanding that he indicate exactly who has threatened him.
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“The president, Ostoja Mijailovic, the sports director, Zoran Savić, and the coach, Zeljko Obradović, assured the player several times that there was no cause for concern and that he was more than welcome in Serbia,” Partizan said, even assuring that the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic“invited the player and confirmed that his safety and that of his family are guaranteed in Serbia.”
In the official note made public this Saturday, Partizan assures that Mirotic’s refusal to sign his contract “has nothing to do with the threats.”
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