After ten years of a legal battle between Ivan Klasnic and a German Bundesliga club, Werder Bremen, the 40-year-old retired Croatian center-forward has been awarded €4 million in damages to compensate him for his damaged kidney.
Ivan Klasnic started battling with kidney related issues while playing for Werder Bremen between 2001–2008. Before he left Werder Bremen in 2008 and Nantes in 2009 to join Premier League club, Bolton Wanderers, on loan on September 1, 2009, he has already undergone two kidney transplants.
He managed to continue playing professionally despite the kidney issues. After his one season-long loan spell at Bolton, he joined the Premier League club permanently for free. He played with the club for two more years before he returned to Germany to play for FSV Mainz 05 in 2012.
The Kidney complications forced him to retire from professional football in 2013 and went into private life until he made the news again in 2017 that he has undergone a third kidney transplant.
During all those periods, Ivan Klasnic’s legal representatives were dragging Werder Bremen for compounding the kidney complications of the retired footballer by giving him painkillers when he was playing for them between 2001 and 2008.
Initially, Klasnic’s legal representatives won the legal battle against the German club and the court ordered the club to pay the Croatian former international 100,000 euros in damages. But his lawyers were not pleased with the outcome of the legal battle, hence, the case was taken to a higher court in Germany.
Recently, Ivan Klasnic’s lawyer, Matthias Teichner confirmed that the court has ordered Werder Bremen to pay the 40-year-old retired striker €4 million in damages.
“No money in the world can make up for the considerable and permanent damage to my client’s health [but this is] more suitable to create a feeling of justice”, Barrister Matthias Teichner said.
“At least the doctors were now ready to express their regret about the incidents. In my opinion, this was long overdue.”
Before Ivan Klasnic left Werder Bremen in 2008, he scored a total number of 77 goals and provided 45 assists in 205 appearances in all competitions.
He helped the club to win the 2003-2004 German Bundesliga title and also the DFB-Pokal title that same season. He finished the season as DFB-Pokal top scorer. He also helped the club to win the 2006 DFB-Ligapokal title and won the DFL-Ligapokal top scorer award.
