In the early years Boris Vrhovac Vrle had to ask for the jerseys of former top players for his collection. A good 30 years down the line they’re asking to give it to him. 

Like so many others, Qatar’s national team physiotherapist Boris Vrhovac Vrle is a passionate collector and has been for more than 30 years. His passion is handball memorabilia. Not least handball jerseys have a big place in his heart. 

So far the he’s collected no less than 1180 jerseys from players from around the world. Some are stored at his mother’s place in Bosnia Herzegovina, where he was born in what was then Yugoslavia, another 450 of them are in his own house in Doha, where he now lives, and in fact Boris Vrhovac Vrle is so famous for his jersey-collecting that the players have gone from jokingly trying to hide their jerseys from him, when they see him, to actively sending them to him.

“In the beginning it was difficult to get hold of the jerseys. I was just another amateur collecting memorabilia, but now the players know who I am and want to have a jersey in the collection. Mikkel Hansen (DEN) for instance sent me a jersey when he heard of the collection and told me, that he was proud to be part of it,” says Boris Vrhovac Vrle. 

Mikkel Hansen is just one of a long line of big sports names that appear in the Vrle-collection. Some are former players such as Arpad Sterbik, Talant Dujshebaev, Magnus Wislander and Ivano Balic, others are still competing at the highest level here in Qatar such as Nikola Karabatic (FRA) and Mikkel Hansen. But all of them belong to the relatively small number of jersey’s that have been selected for the display on the first floor of the Lusail Multipurpose Hall during the World Championships and gives a broader audience the chance to take a trip down handball memory lane.

Apart from the jerseys, the display also gives a brief run through of the story of handball from the early start around 1900 when it was played outdoors with 11-a-side teams to the modern handball of today.     
Once the championships are over, the jerseys go back to Vrle who treasures them greatly and have no plan of parting with his collection.

“People have asked me if I’m willing to sell some of my collection. The answer is “no”. Maybe if I could open a small private museum that would be nice, but otherwise I’ll hold on to it,” says the dedicated collector.

And if anyone doubts the authenticity of the jersey’s they just need to take a closer look. The residues of resin are still visible.