Jovanka Radicevic is relentless

Bojana Popovic + Jovanka Radicevic = Montenegro women’s handball national team.

That sum is pretty simple as the now coach Popovic and current player Radicevic have been with the squad ever since their debut World Championship appearance as an independent nation at Brazil 2011 with Spain 2021 marking the 10th anniversary year.

Montenegro finished 10th back then before going to Serbia and finishing 11th in 2013. Denmark 2015 was 8th; Germany 2017 was 6th and Japan 2019 was 5th – their best-ever ranking. 

Here at the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship in Spain, a transition has taken place with a number of players retired, out injured and new ones coming in.

But Popovic and Radicevic are still there. And while Popovic is now on the sidelines with former player Maja Savic coaching, Radicevic is still going strong – scoring the first and last of 12 individual goals against Angola on Sunday night in Montenegro’s 30:20 victory with both goals celebrated with the exact same intensity from the Montenegrin captain as she has shown since day one.

A look at the official Spain 2021 championship statistics shows that the 35-year-old has been on court for 01:59:26 out of the two possible hours so far. That is just 34 seconds she has not been on court and 99.5% of possible time on court.

This led ihf.info to think: What about Radicevic’s stats at all IHF Women’s World Championships with Montenegro?

So we looked at them and her appearances since Montenegro’s debut back in 2011 is a clear indicator of the influence she has on the side nicknamed the ‘Lionesses’. 

Montenegro:
- Games played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 39
- Hours played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 39 hours
- Goals scored at IHF Women’s World Championships: 1,058

Jovanka Radicevic:
- Games played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 39
- Hours played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 33 hours, 8 minutes and 48 seconds
- Goals scored at IHF Women’s World Championships: 220
- % of Montenegro games played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 100%
- % of Montenegro hours played at IHF Women’s World Championships: 85%
- % of Montenegro goals scored at IHF Women’s World Championships: 21%

For four of Montenegro’s six IHF Women’s World Championship appearances, Radicevic has been on the court most out of the squad, finishing behind Katarina Bulatovic at Germany 2017 by eight-and-a-half minutes and finishing well down the list at Serbia 2013. In fact, if you take out that Serbia championship, then Radicevic would have played in 91% of all Montenegro World Championship matches.

The IHF Women’s World Championship has been a large part of her currently 171 appearances and 933 goals for her country – with 22.8% of all appearances and 23.6% of all her goals coming in the elite global competition.

“I’ve known her for 15 years, 20 years, we’ve played together, I don't know,” said former Buducnost club teammate Popovic about Radicevic to ihf.info. “From this moment when I met her to today, she's the same. She fights for 60 minutes every game, it doesn't matter if it’s 10 minutes or 10+ on the score. This is the only one person who I know who is working like this all the time, all her career.

“She deserves everything, she deserves everything she wins and she deserves to be at the top and I think she knows this,” added Popovic, sitting next to Radicevic who was clearly taken by the emotional words.

“She's very important for this young team, where we are missing so many players, many injured players. She doesn’t give up any day. She just pushes them, pushes them every day, she's very important.

“It will be so difficult when she decides to finish her playing career. It will be difficult to find a person like this who is all the time fighting and doesn’t look up to see if it is 10 or 12 (goals in front). She just fights.

“I can just say: she’s great and she just needs to continue until she can’t because this world needs this player in handball.”

And with the questioning finished, a big hug between the two Montenegrin legends took place, but it was not finished as Radicevic was keen to send complements back to her coach.

“I just want to say: ‘thank you’,” she said, looking at Popovic. “Because all these things that I have in my blood and other things, I learned from the best player in the world (Popovic) and I'm really happy that now she's my coach and that still we have this energy together and because of that I have all this.

“So thank you, Bojana.”

However many more games she plays for her country is unknown but what is sure, even though a World Championship medal eludes them both, unlike Olympic Games and European Championship ones,  Radicevic, along with Popovic, has written her name in Montenegrin sporting history for eternity.

Jovanka Radicevic's games and goals for Montenegro

The left wing has scored in 38 of Montenegro's 39 games in IHF Women's World Championship history, failing to net in a 16:17 loss to France in their Serbia 2013 Preliminary Round clash. Her 12 goals against Angola at Spain 2021 equalled her best-ever return in a world championship, matching the number she got against Denmark at Germany 2017.