Montenegro men's national handball team

The Montenegro national handball team represents Montenegro in international handball competitions. The national team was formed in 2006 shortly after Montenegro became independent.

Montenegro
Information
Nickname	Zlatni lavovi (The Golden Lions)
Association	Handball Federation of Montenegro
Coach	Didier Dinart
Captain	Mirko Radović
Most caps	Nemanja Grbović (80)
Most goals	Vasko Ševaljević (258)
Colours
1st 2nd
Results
World Championship
Appearances	2 (First in 2013)
Best result	18th (2023)
European Championship
Appearances	8 (First in 2008)
Best result	11th (2022)
Last updated on Unknown.

Montenegro played their first official match on 3 January 2007 in Vantaa and beat Finland (28:26). Since then, Montenegro have qualified for nine big competitions – twice for the World Cup (2013 and 2023) and for the European Championship in 2008, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2026.

History and records

Main article: List of official matches of the Montenegro handball team

The national side first appeared in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, which started in January 2007. After the great success in the qualifying matches, Montenegro participated at the European Championship 2008, where they finished in the second group phase.
A year later, Montenegro failed to qualify for the World Championship 2009 and after that, there was a crisis in the results of national team.
From 2012, results improved. After a surprise win against Sweden in the qualifiers, Montenegro qualified for the World Championship 2013.
In June 2013, Montenegro eliminated Germany in the final round of qualifiers for the European Championship 2014. At the Championship, Montenegro was eliminated in the first phase.
Two years later, the Montenegrin team appeared at the European Championship 2016, but was eliminated after the first phase of the competition, without any win in three matches. Same result, Montenegro made on European Championship 2018. Finally, on European Championship 2020, Montenegro made historical victory against Serbia (22-21), but failed to qualify to the second round of tournament.

National team matches

Tournament	Matches	Wins	Draws	Loss	GF	GA
World Championship	13	3	0	10	340	391
European Championship	25	4	1	20	622	741
Qualifying matches EC/WC	72	39	6	27	1978	2010
Overall	110	46	7	57	2940	3142

Updated: January 23, 2023

Records

Main article: List of official matches of the Montenegro handball team § Records

Largest victory

41:27,  Montenegro –  Finland, 6 January 2007, Budva

Largest defeat

39:23,  Poland –  Montenegro, 24 January 2011, Stavanger

Highest home attendance

approx. 6,000,  Montenegro –  Greece 33:25, 17 April 2022, Podgorica

Highest away attendance

11,835,  Denmark –  Montenegro 37:26, 13 April 2019, Copenhagen

Competitive record

World Championship

The national team of Montenegro made their first appearance at the World Cup in 2013, from their 3rd qualifying attempt. Their first World Cup match was played on 12 January 2013 against Argentina in Granollers, Spain.

World Championship							Qualification
Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L		Pld	W	D	L
2009	did not qualify						2	1	0	1
2011							2	1	0	1
2013	22nd	7	1	0	6		6	5	0	1
2015	did not qualify						2	1	0	1
2017							2	0	0	2
/ 2019							2	0	1	1
2021							Cancelled
/ 2023	18th	6	2	0	4		2	1	0	1
// 2025	did not qualify						2	0	0	2
2027	TBD						TBD
/ 2029
// 2031
Total		13	3	0	10		16	11	1	10

European Championship

Debut on the European Championship, Montenegrin national team made after first attempt.
They participated at the Euro 2008 and made successful appearance in their first match against Russia (25:25). They qualified for the Main Phase of the European Championship.
Their second appearance was in 2014, after Montenegro sensational eliminated Germany during the qualifiers. At the tournament, Montenegro lost all three games, with elimination after the first phase.
Montenegro hoped for a better result in 2016, but it was pretty much deja vu from two years ago as they once again lost all three games and finished in last place in their group, as well as last place in the tournament claiming 16th place out of 16 teams.

European Championship									Qualification
Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L	GS	GA		Pld	W	D	L
2008	12th	6	0	1	5	149	188		8	7	1	0
2010	did not qualify								8	4	0	4
2012									6	1	0	5
2014	16th	3	0	0	3	66	84		6	4	0	2
2016	16th	3	0	0	3	76	90		6	3	1	2
2018	16th	3	0	0	3	66	89		6	2	3	1
// 2020	18th	3	1	0	2	70	84		6	3	1	2
/ 2022	11th	7	3	0	4	195	216		6	3	0	3
2024	14th	3	1	0	2	84	86		6	3	0	3
// 2026	Qualified								6	4	1	1
// 2028	To be determined
Total	8/11	28	5	1	22	706	837		64	34	7	23

Team

Current squad

Squad for the 2024 European Men's Handball Championship^[1][2]

Head coach: Vlado Šola

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 1 GK Nikola Matović (1998-05-08) 8 May 1998 (age 27) 1.91 m 28 0 Amo Handboll 4 LW Aleksandar Bakić (2000-09-03) 3 September 2000 (age 24) 1.94 m 37 51 RK Nexe Našice 5 LB Arsenije Dragašević (2002-07-18) 18 July 2002 (age 22) 2.02 m 12 10 HC Pfadi Dietlikon 6 LW Miloš Vujović (1993-09-05) 5 September 1993 (age 31) 1.81 m 59 200 VfL Gummersbach 7 RB Stefan Čavor (1994-11-03) 3 November 1994 (age 30) 1.97 m 63 112 HSG Wetzlar 8 P Vuk Lazović (1988-03-10) 10 March 1988 (age 37) 2.00 m 51 40 Al-Najma SC 9 CB Radojica Čepić (2002-07-29) 29 July 2002 (age 22) 1.94 m 28 57 HC Kriens-Luzern 10 P Miodrag Ćorsović (2000-02-22) 22 February 2000 (age 25) 1.98 m 12 22 RK Trimo Trebnje 11 RB Branko Vujović (1998-04-20) 20 April 1998 (age 27) 1.96 m 51 217 TSV Hannover-Burgdorf 12 GK Haris Suljević (2001-02-26) 26 February 2001 (age 24) 1.94 m 4 0 RK Izviđač 13 RW Mirko Radović (1990-06-15) 15 June 1990 (age 34) 1.86 m 77 64 RK Lovćen 16 GK Nebojša Simić (1993-01-19) 19 January 1993 (age 32) 1.92 m 64 3 MT Melsungen 17 LB Vasilije Kaluđerović (1998-10-03) 3 October 1998 (age 26) 1.91 m 27 49 Qadsia SC 24 LB Miloš Božović (1994-12-10) 10 December 1994 (age 30) 1.99 m 53 120 US Ivry Handball 26 RB Risto Vujačić (1993-12-04) 4 December 1993 (age 31) 1.90 m 23 26 HC Ramat HaSharon 27 RW Luka Radović (1997-12-29) 29 December 1997 (age 27) 1.80 m 17 39 Saran Loiret HB 31 RW Vojislav Vukić (2003-03-05) 5 March 2003 (age 22) 1.80 m 0 0 MRK Krka 32 CB Božo Anđelić (1992-03-16) 16 March 1992 (age 33) 1.86 m 56 90 PLER KC 35 LB Vuko Borozan (1994-04-09) 9 April 1994 (age 31) 2.02 m 34 121 RK Lovćen 90 P Nemanja Grbović (1990-04-26) 26 April 1990 (age 35) 1.83 m 80 225 Steaua București

Uniforms

1st: red/red

2nd: green/green

3rd: black/black

GK: 2yellow/green/blue\

Coaching staff

Role	Name
Head coach	Didier Dinart
Assistant coach	Brano Božović
Assistant coach	Goran Music
Team manager	Petar Kapisoda
Strength coach	Anton Claesson
Team official	Maksim Šćekić
Physiotherapist	Andrija Damjanović
Physiotherapist	Hamza Mehović

Head coaches

Since independence, Montenegro was led by eight different coaches. Most matches as a Montenegro coach has Zoran Roganović (34).

Coach	From	To	Record*					Championship
			M	W	D	L	Win %
Pero Milošević	October 2006	June 2007	8	7	1	0	087.50
Ranko Popović	August 2007	November 2009	16	5	1	10	031.25	EC 2008
Kasim Kamenica	November 2009	April 2010	2	1	0	1	050.00
Miodrag Popović	April 2010	March 2011	4	1	0	3	025.00
Zoran Kastratović	May 2011	February 2014	24	10	0	14	041.67	WC 2013, EC 2014
Ljubomir Obradović	March 2014	November 2016	13	4	1	8	030.77	EC 2016
Dragan Đukić	November 2016	July 2018	11	3	3	5	027.27	EC 2018
Zoran Roganović	August 2018	January 2023	34	12	1	21	035.29	EC 2020, EC 2022, WC 2023
Vlado Šola	February 2023	May 2024	7	2	0	5	028.57	EC 2024

* Data is only for official matches (qualifiers, European Championship, World Championship).

Notable former players

• Petar Kapisoda
• Draško Mrvaljević
• Zoran Roganović
• Goran Đukanović
• Alen Muratović
• Novica Rudović
• Goran Stojanović
• Vladimir Osmajić
• Ratko Đurković
• Fahrudin Melić
• Blažo Lisičić
• Marko Dobrković
• Žarko Pejović
• Mladen Rakčević
• Igor Marković
• Aleksandar Svitlica
• Nemanja Grbović

See also

• List of official matches of the Montenegro handball team
• Handball Federation of Montenegro
• Montenegro women's national handball team