(FILES) Croatian national football team player Nikola Pokrivac listens to the anthem at the Ferenc Szusza stadium in Budapest on May 31, 2008 prior to a friendly match against Hungary in preparation for the Euro 2008 starting on June 7, 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Former Croatian national football team player Nikola Pokrivac, 39 years-old, who played for AS Monaco, has died in a car accident happened on the night of April 19, 2025 in Karlovac, about fifty kilometres south-west of Zagreb, the Croatian Football Federation announced on April 20, 2025. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)
Former Croatian international footballer Nikola Pokrivac has been killed in a car crash aged 39, the country’s national football federation announced on Saturday.
Local media said he was in a vehicle with three team-mates from lower league club NK Vojnic when they were involved in a four-vehicle collision in Karlovac in central Croatia on Friday evening.
His team-mates were taken to hospital with serious injuries while it was reported a person in another car also died.
Pokrivac — capped 15 times and a member of the squad that reached the Euro 2008 quarter-finals — achieved the Croatian domestic double three times with Dinamo Zagreb. He won the 2010 Austrian title with RB Salzburg.
Pokrivac, retired from professional football in 2015 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
However, the former Monaco midfielder — who had a daughter — resumed his career in 2021 and joined Vojnic last year.
“Nikola was a great football player, who lived football until his last moment in this world, and who showed great courage in life by overcoming a terrible disease,” said Croatian Football Federation president Marijan Kustic.
“This is a great loss for our football community, and especially painful for the family.”
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