At first glance, it might seem that heart disease in professional footballers should be detected immediately. After all, players are often examined in detail by club doctors who take care of their health. The tragedy of six years ago involving the sudden death of Davide Astori showed, however, that the reality is completely different. Even healthy in theory sportsmen the disease can affect on the pitch during competition.
26-year-old retires due to heart disease
Dragisa Gudelj was luckier than the Italian defender. Last year, the Serbian player almost lost his life on the pitch twice. In March, during one of the matches, his heart suddenly stopped. Then, Gudelj was able to stand for several minutes. measure clinical. In December 2023, a similar situation occurred. Finally, the last straw was enough.
On Wednesday, the 26-year-old defender announced on social media that he had been forced to end his career due to a chronic illness. – Hello, my name is Dragi Gudelj and I was born again on March 25, 2023. I started playing football when I was four years old. The first thing I had in my hand was a ball. Since then, I have always said that my dream is to always become a professional footballer – the Serb begins in an emotional video. He then talks about the course of his career, before moving on to his heart problems.
– On March 25, I lost my life for three and a half minutes. I thank God that I was born again. All I wanted was to be able to play football again and prove to all those who love me that you always have to move forward and not stop at a difficult moment. […] My heart can't give any more. This is the reality of the moment. I've talked about it with my family, friends and doctors. We've made the decision to end my career. I'm going to stop being a professional footballer. I don't want to be sad because that was the message I wanted to send. I want to be optimistic because life goes on and we'll always have tough battles, he added at the end. He commented on his video with three heart emojis Ivan Rakiti.
Dragisa Gudelj started his career with the Dutch team NAC Breda, from where he moved to the youth team of Ajax Amsterdam. He then went to the Swiss FC Wohlen and Portuguese Guimaraes. After two years at Spanish Cadiz CF, Mirandilla moved to Cordoba CF. It was his last team. At the age of 26, he hung up his boots. At his peak, Transfermarkt valued the Serb at 300,000 euros.