Vlah writes history with 14-goal outing for Slovenia: "Probably the best performance in my entire career"

02 Aug. 2024

Vlah writes history with 14-goal outing for Slovenia: "Probably the best performance in my entire career"

Earmarked as a big talent when he was playing for RD Koper, centre back Aleks Vlah was snapped up quickly by Croatian giants HC Zagreb in 2018 and immediately loaned back to his former club. 

But then, Zagreb had big plans with Vlah, before things did not work out. Sometimes, in handball, this just happens. The centre back, who made his debut in the Slovenia men’s senior national team in 2017, when he was only 20 years old, scored only 30 goals in two seasons in the EHF Champions League Men for the Croatian champions.

Therefore, Vlah decided to return to Slovenia, this time at RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko, where he slowly started to confirm his big potential. In the 2022/23 season, the best of his career so far, he scored 88 goals in the European premium competition.

“After my spell in Zagreb, in 2021, after the two seasons there, where I know I wasn't at my best, at how good I could perform. I think only the last half of the last season was really good. After that, the change to Celje, a perfect choice for me. I didn't want to rush to go in another country outside of Slovenia, but I wanted to first perform as a first player in Celje, playing in the Champions League,” says Vlah.

That step was the perfect one for Vlah, who started entering the conversation to return to the Slovenia national team. The first step was the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship, where he made his debut in a major international competition and became the team’s top scorer, with 31 goals.

Slovenia finished 10th and ensured a spot in the Paris 2024 Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments. One year later, at the EHF EURO 2024, Slovenia finished sixth and Vlah was once again the best scorer, with 44 goals.

A pattern was emerging.

But once the European side finished second in the Olympic Qualification Tournament #1 in Granollers, Spain, and punched their ticket to Paris, Vlah became even more crucial, being a reliable scorer, in an aging backcourt, with players like Dean Bombac, Jure Dolenec and Borut Mackovsek being closer to the end of their career rather than its start.

So Vlah got to work and, once again, he is by far Slovenia’s best scorer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where the European side secured their third quarter-finals berth in four appearances, a fantastic performance for a country with a population of only 2 million.

Not only he is Slovenia’s top scorer, with 32 goals – only five of which came from penalties – he was also the X factor in his team’s 29:28 win against Japan, which helped Slovenia secure a quarter-finals berth.

In fact, Vlah was only one goal shy of tying the record for the largest number of goals scored by a single player at the Olympic Games, 15, currently held by Poland’s Jerzy Klempel, who set the top performance at Montreal 1976, 58 years ago, against Tunisia.

Only one player – France’s Frederic Volle at Atlanta 1996– had scored 14 goals in a single match before Vlah, who had 20 shots in the win against Japan, for an excellent 70% shooting efficiency. This was also the best individual performance at Paris 2024, beating the previous one, set by Mathias Gidsel against Argentina, when he scored 13 goals.

“It is probably the best performance in my entire career, yes. If I wrote history, then yes. But this is part of the game, being part of the team without the teammates, I wouldn't do that. Today it was me. Next day, it can be someone else,” said Vlah, who is the second Slovenia player to score in double digits at Paris 2024 in a single match, after right wing Blaz Janc had 10 goals against Sweden.

Next, Slovenia will face Germany and a fourth win in this group would see the European side, who were an underdog to start the competition, finish first in the group, one which also had powerhouses like Sweden, Spain or Croatia at the start.

“That was the first goal we set ourselves before the Olympics, to make it to the quarter-finals. We've done it now with one game left. We can be a little bit more relaxed in the last game, but today was a crazy game. Japan was so hard to play against. We knew that they played so fast, but when you see it on the field, it's even faster,” adds Vlah.

And what can the centre back dream of? A 15-goal match next?

“I hope more for every win in the next games. That's the first aim. Even if I score one goal, I don't care. If we get close to the medal or win a medal here, that will be the history we write for our country,” concludes Vlah.