{"id":175776,"date":"2025-04-19T18:04:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=175776"},"modified":"2025-04-19T18:07:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:07:01","slug":"tragic-day-for-croatian-football-former-national-team-player-dies-in-car-crash-once-played-for-top-french-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/tragic-day-for-croatian-football-former-national-team-player-dies-in-car-crash-once-played-for-top-french-club\/","title":{"rendered":"TRAGIC DAY FOR CROATIAN FOOTBALL: Former National Team player dies in car crash, once played for top French club!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A dark cloud has fallen over Croatian football following the <strong>tragic death of former national team player Nikola Pokriva\u010d (39)<\/strong> in a <strong>fatal traffic accident<\/strong> near <strong>Karlovac<\/strong>, Croatian daily <em>Jutarnji list<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the <strong>Karlovac Police Department<\/strong>, the <strong>crash occurred around 8:15 p.m.<\/strong> on <strong>April 18, 2025<\/strong>, on the \u201cTuranj Bypass\u201d and involved <strong>four passenger vehicles<\/strong>. In the devastating collision, <strong>two people lost their lives<\/strong>, while <strong>three others were injured<\/strong> and transported by ambulance to receive medical attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;On April 18, 2025, at approximately 8:15 p.m. in Karlovac (Turanj Bypass), a traffic accident occurred involving four passenger vehicles. Two persons were killed in the incident, while three were taken to medical facilities for treatment,&#8221; the police statement reads.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nikola Pokriva\u010d<\/strong>, remembered as a <strong>talented midfielder<\/strong> with an extensive international career, began his football journey at <strong>Varteks Vara\u017edin<\/strong>, before moving to <strong>Dinamo Zagreb<\/strong> and eventually signing with <strong>AS Monaco<\/strong>, one of France&#8217;s most prestigious clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">FIND OUT MORE: <\/mark><\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fserbiantimes%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02wQ5eD8yZsGoBa8uJTN4aEBzrHnbE9qZuExCQgfUfUHj3H9cDb9LUS5smcP8P4BoVl&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"595\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>His career also included stints at <strong>Red Bull Salzburg (Austria)<\/strong>, <strong>Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan)<\/strong>, and <strong>Maccabi Petah Tikva (Israel)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>2015<\/strong>, Pokriva\u010d publicly revealed he had been battling a <strong>serious illness<\/strong>, which forced him to withdraw from professional football. After overcoming the disease, he made a <strong>remarkable return to the pitch<\/strong>, playing for several <strong>lower-division clubs<\/strong> across Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pokriva\u010d earned <strong>15 caps for the Croatian national team<\/strong>, contributing during a key era of the squad\u2019s development. Since <strong>2019<\/strong>, he had transitioned to coaching, sharing his experience and passion for the game with younger generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His sudden and tragic passing has left the Croatian football community in mourning, as fans and former teammates remember him not only for his talent and determination on the field, but for his strength and resilience off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">MORE TOPICS:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/bloody-easter-1944-how-the-allied-bombing-shrouded-belgrade-in-mourning-photo-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">BLOODY EASTER 1944: How the Allied Bombing Shrouded Belgrade in Mourning! (PHOTO, VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/order-of-saint-stephen-what-the-most-famous-serbian-chivalric-order-looked-like-during-the-reign-of-emperor-dusan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ORDER OF SAINT STEPHEN: What the Most Famous Serbian Chivalric Order Looked Like During the Reign of Emperor Du\u0161an!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/shocking-testimony-the-war-diary-of-a-serbian-policeman-from-kosovo-in-1999-reveals-all-the-horrors-of-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">SHOCKING TESTIMONY: The war diary of a Serbian policeman from Kosovo in 1999 reveals all the horrors of war!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>Nedeljnik, <strong>Foto:<\/strong> Printscreen \/ X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A dark cloud has fallen over Croatian football following the tragic death of former national team player Nikola Pokriva\u010d (39) in a fatal traffic accident near Karlovac, Croatian daily Jutarnji list reports. According to the Karlovac Police Department, the crash occurred around 8:15 p.m. on April 18, 2025, on the \u201cTuranj Bypass\u201d and involved four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":100000180354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6175,117,6176,1535,662,6177,262],"class_list":["post-175776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-dinamo-zagreb","tag-hrvatska","tag-luka-modric","tag-monako","tag-nesreca","tag-nikola-pokrivac","tag-tragedija","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175792,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175776\/revisions\/175792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}