Qatar Handball Association (QHA) has named Veselin Vujovic of Montenegro as coach of the Qatar handball team. QHA president Ahmed al-Shaabi reached a formal agreement with Vujovic in Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday.
Vujovic – who is replacing Spaniard Valero Rivera – will be unveiled as the new coach at a press conference at the QHA headquarters in Duhail today. As a player, Vujovic competed at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics for Yugoslavia, where he won gold and bronze respectively.
Vujovic has had biggest coaching successes with Slovenia at World Championship in 2017 (bronze), RK Zagreb (EHF CL quarter-final in 2015 and 2016) and BM Ciudad Real (Cup Winners Cup 2002). He also coached in Iran at last year’s World Championship.
The previous club he managed was Croatian champions RK Nexe. At the end of April, Vujovic was relieved of his duties at RK Nexe after only two months as the team failed in the first knockout round of the European League. When the team parted ways, both sides stated that the goals for which Vujovic was brought in had not been achieved.
Vujovic enjoyed great success as a player with the Yugoslavia national team. After winning gold at the 1981 Junior World Championship, he was runner-up in the World Championship with the senior national team in 1982. This was followed by gold medals at the 1984 Olympics and the 1986 Handball World Championship, as well as bronze at the 1988 Olympics and the 1996 Handball European Championship. He won the European Cup with both Metaloplastika Sabac (1985, 1986) and FC Barcelona (1991). In 1988 he was named World Handball Player of the Year.
From 2006-2009 and from 2011-2013, Veselin Vujovic was coach of Vardar Skopje. Before that, the former world-class player was coach of Metaloplastika Sabac, Partizan Belgrade and Ciudad Real. In between, he also worked for Al Sadd, Al Shabab, RK Zagreb, Koper and Nis as well as Banja Luka - and as national coach of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Iran.