Montenegro men's national handball team
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The Montenegro national handball team represents Montenegro in international handball competitions. The national team was formed in 2006 shortly after Montenegro regained independence.
(The Golden Lions)
| Montenegro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Information | |||
| Nickname | Zlatni lavovi (The Golden Lions) | ||
| Association | Handball Federation of Montenegro | ||
| Coach | Didier Dinart | ||
| Assistant coach | Lazar Simić | ||
| Captain | Mirko Radović | ||
| Most caps | Nemanja Grbović (80) | ||
| Most goals | Vasko Ševaljević (258) | ||
| Colours | |||
| |||
| 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
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.
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.
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 | 23rd | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 90 | 121 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |
 / / 2028 | To be determined | TBD | ||||||||||
 2030 | ||||||||||||
 2032 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 8/13 | 31 | 5 | 1 | 25 | 796 | 958 | 64 | 34 | 7 | 23 | |
Team
Current squad
Squad for the 2026 European Men's Handball Championship.[1][2]
Head coach: Didier Dinart
|
Coaching staff
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Didier Dinart |
| Assistant coach |  Vasko Ševaljević |
| Assistant coach | Goran Musić |
| 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 | 87.50 | |
| Ranko Popović | August 2007 | November 2009 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 31.25 | EC 2008 |
 Kasim Kamenica | November 2009 | April 2010 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 | |
| Miodrag Popović | April 2010 | March 2011 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 25.00 | |
| Zoran Kastratović | May 2011 | February 2014 | 24 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 41.67 | WC 2013, EC 2014 |
| Ljubomir Obradović | March 2014 | November 2016 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 30.77 | EC 2016 |
| Dragan Đukić | November 2016 | July 2018 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 27.27 | EC 2018 |
| Zoran Roganović | August 2018 | January 2023 | 34 | 12 | 1 | 21 | 35.29 | EC 2020, EC 2022, WC 2023 |
| Vlado Šola | February 2023 | May 2024 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 28.57 | 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
