At the end of the second season in Israel, the finals of the Brener Cup are traditionally held, a competition named after a tragically ruined handball player, a well-known coach. This year’s finals were the match between two Serbian coaches, Makismović Nikole, who leads the bench from Maccabi from Tel Aviv and coach Andrija Vukojević, Maccabi Dimon. This time, Maccabi from Tel Aviv convincingly greeted Dimon, who made two weeks ago the first league. Captain Maccabi from Tel Aviv is Petar Komnenić, from Vrbas who is also a coach of younger categories in the club.
It’s been a couple of days since this great finale and the victory of your team over Maccabi Dimon, you won the Brener Cup, it remains unfortunate for that missed occasion qualify in the First League, what are your impressions after this win?
– Everyone in the Club is happy to finish the season with a trophy that means a lot to our young team. We somewhat mitigated the bad feeling due to the lackluster in the First League, because our rival Dimon deservedly won the first place. We were much more motivated, but we were better prepared by our opponents and deservedly won the Brener Cup. Macabi Tel Aviv is definitely the most popular sports club in Israel. In the last couple of years, the handball club has set great results in domestic competitions even before two seasons managed to take part in the group phase of the EHF Cup. Due to financial difficulties, the club decided last year to leave the First League.
How would you analyze this year’s season in the second league if you took into account that you only played the finals of the playoffs in the first Israeli league a year ago?
– When the season is analyzed from the outset, and through which we have all gone through problems, I think we can be satisfied with the work done. In the beginning of August, we suddenly stayed out of the main sponsor and the Club’s management made a difficult decision that Maccabi Tel Aviv after the 6-7 season where it fought and won the trophies has no means to compete in the First League and we dropped one rank lower. We started the second season with ambitions to promote young players from the junior team. As we surprisingly well started, the ambitions of all of us were much bigger and practically we were struggling to make the club expressly return to the elite ranks until the last round. The goal of affirming young people is absolutely fulfilled and certainly we have won a lot of satisfaction for all the problems that we encountered during the season.
You spent 5 years in the club, you have great successes and a lot of trophies won both in the senior and junior categories, and what perhaps most importantly you set up is an excellent system of work in the handball school that gives great results. How do you see the continuation of your career and what are the plans for the future, since your contract with Makabi expires in June?
– The management of Maccabi expressed the desire to continue the cooperation, which is imparting to me. Also, I had a couple of offers from other countries that are not attractive at this moment. I decided to stay in Israel in the upcoming period. Several clubs are interested in cooperating. As soon as the play-off ends, I will begin specific negotiations and decide where to continue my career. Certainly I will give priority to a club with the highest ambitions.
Although, in the last few years, Israeli handball has been in great expansion and there is huge progress, primarily in the results of national selections, we still have to admit that still the best handball is still playing in Europe, do you see yourself coach of a big European club and what are the clubs that in your opinion play the best handball?
– Anyone who is seriously engaged in coaching and has high ambitions as my goal is to be a coach of a club that means something to Europe. My ambitions reach far beyond Israel, and I believe that in the near future I will have the opportunity to lead an ambitious European club. At the moment, I am here, primarily for family reasons. According to me, the most beautiful handball of this season is Barcelona, but it will have a lot of competition in Final Four in Cologne in the form of PSG, Vesprem and probably Pick-Seged …
You are not in the Serbia for a long, but as one of our best trainers, opinion on the current situation in the Serbian handball, the quality of the league and what are young players who, in your opinion, can achieve great careers and reach the best European clubs?
– Of course I follow the Serbian handball. At the moment, there is a much better situation in club handball than on a representative one. The league is very interesting, 4-5 high-quality clubs from which they left Vojvodina because of a bigger player’s fund. The great thing for Serbian handball is that most of the clubs are led by young coaches like Rojević, Butulija, Petković, Teodorović and others. Also, in most clubs, we have a mix of youth and experience. Several players with enviable foreign career who have returned to our handball and a lot of young guys who are faster and better with them. I believe that many boys from the junior and cadet national teams will quickly play in the Champions League. I would not count on anyone, but we have a big fan. As far as representation is concerned, we are shifting the generation, but I think we are on the right track to qualify for the EP, which is the primary goal. Until the championship, all players will acquire the necessary representative senior experience and I believe that as a national team, we will advance from the game to the match, concluded Nikola Maksimovic.
