Neil Johnston

BBC Sport journalist

It’s the final day of the 2023-24 season in English football’s second tier and Millwall are looking to end their campaign on a high at Swansea City.

A typical end-of-season affair between two mid-table teams is drifting towards a goalless conclusion when the Welsh side win a penalty after Jake Cooper’s foul on Brazilian winger Ronald.

Up steps the usually reliable Matt Grimes but Matija Sarkic, Millwall’s 6ft 4in Montenegro goalkeeper, flings himself to his right to make a fine save to cap a solid debut season with the Lions after joining from Wolves for £1.2m.

Minutes later Casper de Norre pounces at the other end to earn a 1-0 victory and send Millwall fans into the summer in buoyant mood after a fifth straight win.

“Considering we had a turbulent earlier part of the season and three managers and one caretaker, it was a brilliant end to the campaign,” says Lions season ticket holder Phil Clarke.

Six weeks later that feeling of optimism was shattered when awful news reached The Den that Sarkic, a well-mannered and highly respected team-mate, had died suddenly at the age of 26 while holidaying in Montenegro.

“It was devastating,” Andy Marshall, Millwall’s goalkeeping coach, tells BBC Sport.

Marshall had forged a close relationship with Sarkic, stretching across nine years and three different clubs.

“He was like a son to me. It ripped the club apart.”

Millwall, who face London rivals Crystal Palace in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Saturday (12:15 GMT, live on BBC One), are still coming to terms with the loss of the popular keeper who everyone called ‘Mati’.

“I remember seeing the news come through on social media,” says Clarke. “My son and I were in total shock.”

Marshall was at home with his partner Jasmine when his mobile phone started ringing early in the morning on 15 June 2024.

“It was 06:57. As I went to pick it up it rang off. It was Mati’s father Bojan. I texted him ‘is everything ok?’ and he immediately rang back.”

Ten days earlier Marshall had been at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels to see Sarkic produce a man-of-the-match performance in Montenegro’s friendly against a Belgium, external side that included Kevin de Bruyne and Leandro Trossard.

Belgium won 2-0 but Millwall’s goalkeeper, who dreamed of playing in the Premier League, earned rave reviews for his display – with one report noting that it felt like Sarkic had “come of age”.

“We spoke the day after the game,” adds Marshall.

“We were making plans for the following season, how we were trying to push Millwall towards the Premier League and Mati towards the Premier League because that was the long-term goal.

“I told him to go and enjoy the summer and that we’d chat when we met up again at Millwall for pre-season training.”

It was their last conversation together.

Sarkic was given permission to miss Montenegro’s next game, a friendly against Georgia, to be best man at the wedding of his twin brother Oliver – the former Blackpool and Burton midfielder – in Guimaraes, northern Portugal, on 8 June.

A week later Sarkic died in the coastal town of Budva on the Adriatic coast.

He had been on holiday with his partner Phoebe as well as former Aston Villa defender Oscar Borg and Borg’s girlfriend.

His family were told he suffered sudden heart failure.

“After the phone call with Bojan I was traumatised,” says Marshall. “I broke down crying.”

Sarkic was born in Grimsby in 1997 and spent his early childhood in London before moving to Brussels, where his father was Montenegro’s ambassador.

He joined Anderlecht’s academy at the age of eight and spent 10 years with them before returning to England in 2015 to sign for Aston Villa, where he first encountered Marshall.

“My first impression of Mati? A smart young man who was very clever, very well educated and who was eager to learn,” says Marshall, who was Millwall’s 2004 FA Cup final goalkeeper.

“Immediately we had a good rapport and a very good understanding of one another. I could see the potential in him.”

Loan spells at non-league Stratford Town and Havant & Waterlooville played a part in Sarkic’s football education, as did a short stint at Wigan.

By now a pattern was beginning to emerge despite his career being at the fledgling stage. Sarkic was well liked wherever he went.

“He was just so popular with everybody,” adds Marshall.

He made the permanent switch to neighbours Wolves in 2020, external without making a senior appearance for Villa.

Sarkic was fluent in English, French, Dutch and Montenegrin. When Bruno Lage and Julen Lopetegui were at Wolves, he would translate to the French-speaking players in the team.

Marshall was Birmingham’s goalkeeper coach when Sarkic joined the Blues on loan in the 2021-22 season.

“It was a big gamble,” he recalls. “Mati had not played week in week out in the Championship before.”

Birmingham need not have worried.

Sarkic kept 10 clean sheets in 23 games before his season-long loan was cut short by a dislocated shoulder.

Blues fans did not forget his performances though and four months after returning to Wolves he was named Birmingham’s player of the season before linking up with Marshall again at Millwall in August 2023.

As his career began to take off, Sarkic did not forget his early days at Stratford – who play in the seventh tier of English football – and remained in contact with people at the club even when playing at a much higher level.

Sarkic was laid to rest on Monday, 17 June in the main cemetery in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

He was buried wearing his national kit. The following day a memorial service was organised by the Football Association of Montenegro and was attended by the country’s president.

Soon afterwards Millwall, whose owner and chairman John Berylson died from injuries sustained after his car overturned in July 2023, announced they would retire Sarkic’s number 20 shirt.

When the players returned for pre-season training on 26 June – 11 days after their team-mate’s death – they joined all club staff for a minute’s silence.

Sarkic’s parents, Bojan and Natalie, brothers Oliver and Danilo, and partner Phoebe, were at The Den for the visit of Watford on the opening weekend of this season when Millwall paid tribute to Sarkic.

Watford fans unfurled a banner which read: ‘RIP Matija Sarkic’.

“It was hugely appreciated and a class act. It’s how football comes together in these situations,” adds Clarke, who is part of the Millwall podcast Chat with Chaps.

There have been other acts of kindness from opposition fans.

When Millwall visited Hull City on 24 August, Tigers fan Leo Jamieson presented the team with a painting of Sarkic which now hangs on a wall at the club’s Calmont Road training ground.

Meanwhile, Millwall Supporters’ Club funded a mural, external in the Cold Blow Lane concourse at The Den in tribute to their former goalkeeper.

A tree has also been planted in his memory outside the players’ entrance at the ground, while fans will be able to vote for their 2024-25 save of the season, with the winner presented with the Matija Sarkic award.

“Sometimes in life you meet somebody and there is just that thing,” adds Marshall.

“I had that with Mati. We had a special relationship.

“He knew that I was there 100% to help him develop – not just in his career but as a human being.

“I wanted to help him become the best version of himself. It’s such a tragedy.”

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