Branislav Pokrajac

Branislav Pokrajac

Player information
birthday	January 27, 1947
place of birth	Belgrade , SFR Yugoslavia
citizenship	Serbian
date of death	5th April 2018
Place of death	Belgrade , Serbia
height	1.86 m
Playing position	Left winger
	Right winger
Throwing hand	right
Clubs as active
from ... to	society
0000-0000	ORK Belgrade
0000-0000	RK Red Star Belgrade
0000-0000	Dinamo Pančevo
National team
Debut on	1965
	Games (goals)
Yugoslavia (until 1976)	180 (510)
Clubs as coaches
from ... to	society
1974-1980	Dinamo Pančevo
1980-1984	Yugoslavia
1981-1981	RK Red Star Belgrade
1985-1985	Spain
1988-1988	United States
1989-1991	US Créteil HB
1993-1994	RK Red Star Belgrade
1997-1997	RK Lovćen Cetinje
1998-1999	Yugoslavia (Juniors)
1999-1999	Egypt
2000-2001	Yugoslavia
2001-2003	FC Porto
2003-2005	Qatar
2006-2006	RK Partizan Belgrade
2010–2012	Sporting Lisbon
As of June 23, 2014

Branislav Pokrajac ( Serbian - Cyrillic Бранислав Покрајац , born January 27, 1947 in Belgrade ; † April 5, 2018 ibid) was a Yugoslav and Serbian handball player and coach who became an Olympic champion both as a player and as a coach .

Player career

Branislav Pokrajac played for ORK Belgrade in his youth. He then ran for 15 years for RK Roter Stern Belgrade and Dinamo Pančevo .

With the Yugoslav national team he won the bronze medal at the World Championships in 1970 and 1974 , and in 1967 he was seventh. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, he became Olympic champion. Four years later, he finished fifth at the Montreal Games . In total, he played 180 international matches , in which he scored 510 goals.

Coaching career

In 1974 Pokrajac took over as player- coach Dinamo Pančevo and stayed there until 1980. He then took over the Yugoslav national team, with which he won silver at the 1982 World Cup . At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he led the team to Olympic victory. In 1985 he briefly trained the Spanish selection . At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, he was in charge of the United States' men's national handball team . From 1989 to 1991 he was the coach of the French club US Créteil HB . In 1993 he returned to the post at Red Star. After a brief stint at RK Lovćen Cetinje in 1997, he became head of all Yugoslav national teams in 1998. During this time, the Yugoslav national junior team won the silver medal at the U-20 European championship in 1998 , the university team won the gold medal at the student world championship and the senior national team won the bronze medal at the 1999 world championship . In March of the following year he was in charge of the Egyptian men's handball team . He then took over the Serbian-Montenegrin men's national handball team , with which he won bronze at the 2001 World Cup . The next two seasons he was under contract with Portuguese FC Porto , with whom he became Portuguese champions in 2002 and 2003 . In 2003 Pokrajac became the national coach of Qatar , with whom he won the bronze medal again in 2004, this time at the Asian Cup . In 2006 he had a brief engagement with Partizan Belgrade. In 2010 he returned to Portugal and took over Sporting Lisbon , with whom he won the Portuguese Cup in 2012.

Professional career

Branislav Pokrajac graduated from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education at the University of Belgrade in 1974 with the thesis The importance of speed in handball game and ways of its improvement . In 1980 he submitted his master's thesis The dependence of the initial speed of elementary throwing in handball on actual anthropometric dimensions, level of the repetitive potential of relevant muscle groups as well as the degree of training in 19-21 years old youths . He then did his doctorate until 1983 on the subject of Bodily and motoric status of handball players in relation to competition levels and Comparative analysis with other sport games players . Pokrajac worked as a professor in Belgrade and lectured worldwide for the International Handball Federation and the European Handball Federation.

Web links

• Branislav Pokrajac in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Biography with pictures (PDF, 260 kB; Serbian)
• Biography on taking office at Sporting Lisbon, November 2, 2010

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IN MEMORIAM - Branislav Pokrajac on Handball Planet from April 5, 2018