Jure Juric was a professor of Classics at the university. And he was also the father of Ivan Juric, the coach who coached Toro in the last three seasons. Jure Juric passed away in the night between Saturday and Sunday. And the Granata club embraced the pain of its outgoing coach (also) with a message on the official website: «The President Urbano Cairo with all the board members, the mayors, the managers, the employees, the collaborators, The players and the entire youth sector of the Torino Football Club, saddened by the sad news, are close with affection to Ivan Juric and his family for the passing of their dear father Professor Jure Juric.”
The Croatian coach has always been proud of his father, who he talked about and told about the past when it happened. Years ago, in a long interview with the Gazzetta weekly, SportWeek, he opened up to also answer the question, what kind of father was he? Severe? «No, on the contrary – Juric said at the time –. He’s a good guy. A calm, reasonable guy. He was also helped in this by his Catholic education. As a young man he planned to become a priest, but upon leaving the seminary the communist regime did not recognize his years of study and he had to start again from the beginning. He worked as a journalist, then dedicated himself to teaching until communism forced him to stop doing that too. Yet he always remained balanced, a quality that allowed him to make the best decisions in difficult moments. I’m not like him, I don’t have his character.” Mother’s, then? “Yes. I’m explosive like her.”
And Ivan owed his father the affectionate protection that made him become a footballer (and then a coach). «Mum considered it an insult to the family. She saw the ball as a waste of time. She hindered me in every way. As a boy I had training sessions in the morning: she would turn off my alarm so that I would continue to sleep. At night I had a nightmare about not getting up in time. Dad, on the other hand, let me do it: he was looking for my happiness».
