Experienced Montenegrin coach Veselin Vujović has added another team on his resume, after accepting the offer to lead the Qatar men’s national senior team at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, scheduled between 14 January and 2 February in Croatia, Denmark and Norway.

This will be the sixth national team coached by Vujović, who was also on the bench for Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, finishing on the 24th place with the latter side at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship.

The best performance with a national team for Vujović was the bronze medal with Slovenia at the 2017 IHF Men’s World Championship, when Slovenia conceded only two losses and clinched the third place on the podium with a 31:30 win over Croatia in the bronze medal match.

Vujović, 63, has coached in the last year at club level at Sepahan, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and at Croatian side RK Nexe Našice, and will replace Goran Djokic, who took over Valero Rivera in 2023, won the 2024 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, but missed out on a place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“The circumstances are different and the Qatar are not at the same level as before, but as a coach I know very well the difficulty of the task at this stage, but I accepted it, and therefore I will live up to the expectations of the officials in the Qatari handball federation who gave me this opportunity in order to win the challenge and bring Qatari handball to the best position in Asia and the world,” said Vujović.

The Montenegrin coach will not be at his first experience in Qatar, having already coached club team Al-Sadd in 2010, while also leading another team from the Golf, the Dubai-based Al-Shabab between 2013 and 2014.

Vujović has signed a six-month contract, according to the Qatari Handball Federation, with an extension in waiting, if everything goes to plan at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, where Qatar have been drawn in Group C, alongside France, Austria and Kuwait.

“The doors to join our national team are open to everyone. The national team is not limited to a specific player, and we do not look at the ages of the players as much as we look at the levels and fighting spirit of the player on the field, so we will try through our follow-up of the league championship in the next stage to choose the best players who can provide an addition to the national team, especially since there are important entitlements awaiting us, and therefore we will work to push new blood to serve the national team and Qatari handball,” concluded Vujović.

Photo credit: Qatar Handball Association