EHF EURO Croatia 2018 Official Magazine

Croatia qualified for the EHF EURO directly as a host
BEST
7
Alilovic
Strlek
Vori
Cupic
Duvnjak
Cindric
Kopljar
LINO CERVAR
Head Coach
Lino Cervar is the most successful coach in the history
of Croatian handball. After a seven-year-long absence,
he returned to the Croatia bench in 2017. Cervar
coached the national side from 2002 to 2010, leading
Croatia to the World Championship title in 2003 and
Olympic gold one year later. He also led Croatia to
silver medals at the World Championships in 2005 and
2009, and EHF EUROs in 2008 and 2010.
After leaving Croatia, Cervar went to Skopje, where he
coached Metalurg, became Macedonian citizen and
took over the Macedonian national team in 2016.
Cervar started his coaching career in Novigrad, from
where he left to Umag. He led his first team abroad in
Klagenfurt, Austria, in the early 1990s, before coaching
the Italian men’s national side. In 2000, Cervar returned
to Croatia to lead Zagreb and became national team
coach two years later.
DOMAGOJ DUVNJAK
Key Player
Domagoj Duvnjak is one of the most famous Croatian
players in history. He started handball at the age of 10
in his birth town, Djakovo, from where he moved to
Zagreb. Duvnjak stayed in Zagreb for three years and
in that period he became one of the youngest players
ever to put on the Croatian national team jersey.
His transfer from Zagreb to Hamburg in 2009, when he
was only 21, was one of the biggest ever and made him
the world’s most expensive handball player at the time.
In Hamburg, Duvnjak won the VELUX EHF Champions
League in 2013 and was named World Handball Player
of the Year 2013. After playing for Hamburg for five
years he moved to Kiel, where he still is today.
At 29, Duvnjak already went through three Olympic
campaigns – Beijing 2008, London 2012, where he led
Croatia to a bronze medal, and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
He has won two silver and two bronze medals at EHF
EURO events, along with silver and bronze at World
Championships.
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