Bojana Popović née Petrović, (born 20 November 1979) is a handball coach and a retired Montenegrin handballer. She is considered by many to be the best female handball player of the past decade, despite not being given any official recognition. After winning the

Women's EHF Champions League The Women's EHF Champions League is the competition for the top women's handball clubs in Europe, organised annually by the European Handball Federation (EHF). It is the most prestigious tournament for clubs, with the champions of Europe's top n ...

with Budućnost and a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games with the Montenegro national team, Bojana Popović decided to retire from handball. However, in June 2016 Popović announced she would come out of retirement and make herself available for selection by the Montenegro national handball team to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Career

Bojana Popović started playing handball at Serbian club HC Naisa Niš when she was eleven years old. She later played for Montenegrin club Budućnost Podgorica for four seasons. In 2002, Popović signed a contract with Danish team

Slagelse DT Slagelse Dream Team was a handball team from the town of Slagelse, Denmark. It is sometimes referred to as "Slagelse DT", and is the professional first team for the handball club Slagelse Forenede Håndboldklubber (Slagelse FH). The club was cata ...

, at that time coached by

Anja Andersen Anja Jul Andersen (born 15 February 1969 in Odense, Denmark) is a former Danish team handball player and current coach. She is an Olympic champion, World champion and two times European champion. In 1997, she was named IHF World Player of the Yea ...

. With Slagelse, she experienced great success: three times Champions League winner,

EHF Cup The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Prev ...

winner, three Danish Championship golds and one Danish Cup. At the end of the 2006/07 season, Popović signed a contract with

Viborg HK Viborg HK (Viborg Håndbold Klub) is the name of a Danish handball club from Viborg. The club has many teams for both women and men, but especially the professional women's team is one of the most successful in Danish and European handball si ...

. Since her arrival at Viborg, she has won two Danish Championship golds and two Danish Cups. In 2009 she won her fourth Champions League title, the first with Viborg.

Team results

;Club * Champions League :Winner 2004, 2005 and 2007 (Slagelse); 2009, 2010 (Viborg) and 2012 (ŽRK Budućnost T-Mobile) *

:Winner 2003 (Slagelse) * Danish Championship :Gold 2003, 2005 and 2007 (Slagelse); 2008, 2009 and 2010 (Viborg) * Danish Cup :Winner 2003 (Slagelse); 2007 and 2008 (Viborg) * Serbian and Montenegrin Championship :Winner 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 (Budućnost Podgorica) * Serbian and Montenegrin Cup :Winner 2000, 2001 and 2002 (Budućnost Podgorica) * Montenegrin Championship :Winner 2011, 2012 * Montenegrin Cup :Winner 2011, 2012 ;National team * World Championship 2001 :Bronze medal (Yugoslavia) * Summer Olympics 2012 :Silver medal

Awards and recognition

During her handball career, Bojana Popović was considered to be the best player in the world by many. She has been chosen Player of the Year by the

Danish Handball Federation '' , abbrev= DHF , logo= Danish Handball Federation logo.svg , logosize= 150px , countryflag= Denmark , iocnation= Kingdom of Denmark (DEN) , url= www.dhf.dk , sport= Handball , othersport1= Beach Handball , othersport2= Wheelchair Handball , histo ...

four times. Popović's individual awards and achievements include: * Player of the year in Denmark in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 * Topscorer of the Danish League 2003/04 and 2004/05 * Topscorer of the Champions League in 2004, 2005 and 2007 * "Cup Fighter" ( da, Pokalfighter) 2008 * Montenegrin Sportsperson of the Year: 2012

References

External links

European Handball Federation – Bojana PopovicViborg HK – Player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popovic, Bojana 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Niš Montenegrin female handball players Viborg HK players Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players of Montenegro Montenegrin people of Serbian descent Olympic medalists in handball Olympic silver medalists for Montenegro Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Expatriate handball players Handball coaches of international teams