Siniša Mihajlović: Adriano denied star chance of scoring hat-trick of free-kicks | OneFootball

Siniša Mihajlović is regarded as one of the best free-kick takers in football history –– but he still had to fight for the honour of taking them.

Indeed, the ex-Yugoslavia star scored countless screamers over the course of his career and once played a game of rock-paper-scissors back in 2005 with former Inter teammate Adriano, in order to decide who received the honour of taking a free-kick against Roma.

Mihajlović, who sadly passed away aged 53 earlier this week after a long battle with illness, had opened the scoring for Inter in the 23rd minute, courtesy of, you guessed it, a sublime free-kick.

Yet, when a similar dead ball situation arose in the second half, ex-Brazilian striker Adriano was desperate to have a pop himself.

To be fair, Adriano was also more than capable of scoring from distance and thus became engaged in a friendly debate with Mihajlović over the right to take the free-kick.

Who won the rock-paper-scissors game?

In the end, it was Adriano who emerged the victor ––– seemingly choosing rock, which trumped Mihajlović’s scissors.

However, despite earning the right to test the keeper, Adriano did no such thing and fired a low, driven shot straight into the wall.

In truth, after going to such lengths to take the free-kick, it was a rather feeble attempt from the Brazilian, especially given he’d taken the chance away from one of the best free-kick takers in the world.

What did fans make of the free-kick?

One fan stressed: “Unless you’re Juninho you should let Mihajlović take the free-kick lmao.”

Meanwhile, another joked: “Rock, paper, middle finger, f*** you, I’m taking this free-kick.”

A third emphasised that this era of football was iconic and wrote: “Golden age of football.”

What else happened in the game?

Hilariously, late on in the game, Inter received another free-kick and this time there was no taking the ball away from Mihajlović.

The set-piece specialist stepped up and sent a curling attempt over the wall, which nestled into the bottom right corner and sealed a 2-0 win for Inter.

And who knows, had he been given the chance to take the second free-kick, the defender may well have netted a hat-trick of set-pieces.

It wouldn’t have been the first time either, as the Yugoslavian scored three times from set-pieces against Sampdoria in 1998, while playing for Lazio.

If only he’d have picked paper…