RK Metković
| Full name | Rukometni club Metković | ||
| Founded | September 1, 1963 | ||
| Club colors | White-red | ||
| president | Zdenka Marušić | ||
| Trainer | Tomislav Veraja | ||
| league | 3. HRL
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| Greatest successes | |||
| National |
Croatian cup winner 2001 & 2002 |
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| International |
EHF Cup 2000 EHF Cup finalist 2001 |
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RK Metković ( Rukometni klub RK Metković ) is a handball club from the Croatian town of Metković . The first team plays in the first Croatian league. Are former name of the association RK Mehanika , in the meantime, the association also took its main sponsors in the club name and was known until 1998 RK Metković-Razvitak and 1999-2003 RK Metković-Jambo .
history
The association was founded on September 1, 1963 under the name "RK Mehanika", initiators for the establishment were Zdravko Vučićević ( Zagreb ) and Tomislav Brace Volarević ( Split ). The club played its first games on the grass field of the local football club "NK Neretva" and on various sports fields in nearby schools. Since the city of Metković lies exactly on the border between Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina , but at that time little handball was played on the Croatian side, the club was assigned to a lower Bosnian league.
In 1965/66 an asphalt playing field was built by the club's co-founder Volarević and his students from a local high school, and later even illuminated. In the first generation it was mainly former soccer players who switched to handball.
The club achieved a decisive increase in quality in 1970 when they joined the Dalmatian league. Under the leadership of Luka Veraja, the club stabilized and rose almost annually to the second division, although the club did not lose a home game on home soil for three years. Even opponents like Dukla Prague , VfL Gummersbach or the Swiss national team were defeated in friendly matches . After six years in the second Yugoslav league, the team rose to the first division in 1978 for the first time in the club's history, but from which they were relegated after the season, because financially they could not keep up with the other clubs; there was also no hall that would have been necessary for the license. On November 26, 1982 a sports hall was opened after a lot of personal work.
After the club had played a rather subordinate role in the Yugoslav league, the club saw the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as an opportunity to catch up with other major clubs such as RK Zagreb . However, they started as a second division team, but rose to the first Croatian league in the first year. In 1996/97 they reached fourth place in the league, which resulted in the first European competition in the club's history. At the same time, a large-scale handball school was set up, from which players such as Patrik Ćavar , Slavko Goluža , Ivica Obrvan and Vladimir Jelčić came from. In addition, the sporting management was able to sign talents from other clubs, such as the later world handball player Ivano Balić , at an early stage. With these players you became cup winners in 2001 and 2002. In addition, the club won the EHF Cup in 2000 ; In 2001 he moved into the final of this competition again.
In the third round of the Challenge Cup in 2009, the RK Metković won against the Ukrainian club SC Time-Burevestnik Lugansk 32:24, but did not play for the second leg in Ukraine. In November 2009, the European Handball Federation therefore excluded RK Metković from all international competitions for two years; the club should also pay a fine of 10,000 euros.
successes
- Cup winners; 2001, 2002
- EHF Cup Winner: 2000
- EHF Cup finalist: 2001
Well-known former players
- Ivano Balić
- Before that, Dominiković
- Slavko Goluža
- Dragan Jerković
- Goran Jerković
- Mario Kelentric
- Petar Metličić
- Renato Sulić
- Patrik Ćavar