Bologna president Joey Saputo has released a statement after the passing of Sinisa Mihajlovic.

The former Bologna coach passed away on Friday at the age of 53 after a long battle with leukemia.

Speaking to Bologna's media department, Saputo stated: “The news of Sinisa's death leaves me deeply grieving. I knew that his condition had deteriorated a lot in the last few days, yet it seemed impossible for me to receive, so soon, this terrible announcement.

“With Mihajlovic we lose first of all an extraordinary and never trivial man, who knew how to alternate his celebrated gruff attitudes with uncommon sweetness and sympathy. We also lose a great champion, who, as a player first and as a coach later, gave so much to football.

“I, as president of Bologna, feel like expressing once again my gratitude to him for what he did for our club in these three and a half years, despite the fact that illness had forced him into long hospitalizations and very painful treatments.

“The decision to relieve him of his duties, when it had become impossible to continue such complex work under these difficult conditions, was, as I have already had occasion to say, the most painful of my entire administration.

“Today my thoughts go to his mother Viktorija, his wife Arianna, his children and his entire family: to them goes my and Bologna's gratitude in the memory of a son, a husband, a father, of whom they can always be proud."