Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Vukcevic’s 2012 horror crash
The professional soccer player who escaped death
It’s been nine years since TSG Hoffenheim feared for the life of a professional: Boris Vukcevic had a serious accident in his car in 2012, was in a coma for weeks and barely survived. He’ll never play professional football again. And yet he has remained loyal to the sport.
September 28, 2012 is a completely normal Friday. In the Bundesliga, Fortuna Düsseldorf will play against FC Schalke 04 in the evening. Yes, in the first division. At halftime, the royal blue leads 2-0, at the end it is 2-2. Schalke is fourth, Düsseldorf sixth in the table. It’s been a long time, this season. And yet everything is completely different on this day, all football suddenly becomes unimportant.
On Saturday of this sixth matchday, 1899 Hoffenheim welcomes FC Augsburg (0-0). And for the host, the world turned upside down on Friday. The club, which is now playing in the Bundesliga for the fifth time, is worried about a player. Boris Vukcevic. The 22-year-old, one of the league’s most promising young players, is in an artificial coma after a car accident.
The German with Croatian roots has been playing for Hoffenheim since 2009, made his debut in the German U19 national team in 2008 and also plays in the U20s and U21s, for which he will play six games from September 2010. The last on September 10, 2012 in the European Championship qualification against Bosnia (4: 4). He never makes it into Joachim Löw’s A-Team. Because that day his career ended suddenly nine years ago.
Vukcevic survived the accident in which he sustained severe head injuries. He is in an artificial coma for seven weeks. At more than 70 kilometers per hour, he hit the opposite lane on the B45 between Bammental and Mauer in the Rhein-Neckar district and collided with a truck. Because of his diabetes, he was hypoglycemic when he lost control.
Meanwhile trainer in Böblingen
As a professional, he will never play football again. On the first anniversary of his terrible accident, fans and team remember Vukcevic with posters, banners and T-shirts during the game against FC Schalke. His contract expires six months later, in May 2014, and at least since then, Vukcevic has been quiet. “I had some wonderful years, I was able to live my dream,” he said in 2019 to the “Gäuboten”. But today “nobody” asks about him anymore, he said. Shortly after his accident, no one from his team, apart from Sejad Salihovic, asked how he was, he told the newspaper. His coach at the time, Markus Babbel and Ralf Rangnick, on the other hand, did. “You only meet true friends when you are on the dark side of life.”
He has remained loyal to football. Different from before. He has found a home at SV Böblingen, where a friend of his is in charge of the boys’s sporting leadership. As a trainer in youth. He is now responsible for the club’s U19s. The team started with a success in the Association Cup: 4: 3 against TSV Weilheim / Teck. Böblingen also mastered the start of the national relay with a 2-0 win against 1. FC Eislingen I.
And the now 31-year-old is also fit again. He fought his way out of the wheelchair, onto the crutches and can now do sport himself again. He told the “Gäuboten” two years ago: “Now I jog ten kilometers every three or four days.” When he was still training the U15 of SV Böblingen, he wished for “his” offspring: “I like working with children. This is something completely new for me, but I enjoy being able to teach the boys something. And who knows, maybe one of this team will make it into the professional field. “
Nine years after his accident, many things are different than back then, in 2012. Schalke and Düsseldorf play in the second division. Hoffenheim’s coach is no longer called Babbel, but Sebastian Hoeneß. But Boris Vukcevic is alive. That is more important than any professional circus.