Željko Đurđić (, ; 8 November 1962 – 28 July 2014) was a Serbian

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

goalkeeper. Known locally by the nickname ''Džigi'', he captained RK Proleter Zrenjanin to the 1990–91 European Handball Cup final where Proleter narrowly lost to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. He played 45 times for the Yugoslav national handball team.

Health issues

Falling out of the limelight after his retirement in 1996, his name began appearing in newspapers once again in late 2011. Đurđić said in an interview that he was living in poverty, and that although he needed surgery on both his knees, he was unable to afford it. Đurđić died in

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

on 28 July 2014.

References

1962 births 2014 deaths Sportspeople from Doboj Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbian male handball players Yugoslav male handball players RK Proleter Zrenjanin players {{Serbia-handball-bio-stub