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 2000's, despite not being given any official recognition. After winning the Women's EHF Champions League with Budućnost and a silver medal at the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

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 team handball, handball team from the town of Slagelse, Denmark. It is sometimes referred to as "Slagelse Dream Team" or just "Slagelse DT", and is the professional first team for the handball club Slagelse Forenede Hån ...

, at that time coached by Anja Andersen. With Slagelse, she experienced great success: three times Champions League winner, EHF Cup 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 a Danish professional handball club from Viborg, Denmark, 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 Euro ...

. Since her arrival at Viborg, she has won two Danish Championship golds and two Danish Cups. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

she won her fourth Champions League title, the first with Viborg.

Achievements

National team

Bronze medal EC 2022 as a coach of Montenegro NT *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

: **''Silver Medalist'':

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

: **''Bronze Medalist'':

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

European

EHF Champions League The EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the men's com ...

: **''Winner'': 2003/2004, 2004/2005, 2006/2007, 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2011/2012 * EHF Cup: **''Winner'': 2002/2003

Domestic

* Damehåndboldligaen: **''Winner'': 2002/2003, 2004/2005, 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

: **''Winner'': 2001/2002, 2006/2007, 2007/2008 * Serbian and Montenegrin Championship: **''Winner'': 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 *Serbian and Montenegrin Cup: **''Winner'': 2000, 2001, 2002 * Prva Liga: **''Winner'': 2010/2011, 2011/2012 *

Montenegrin Cup The Montenegrin Cup (Montenegrin language, Montenegrin: ''Kup Crne Gore'') is the national football cup played in Montenegro, established in 2006. The winner of the cup is awarded a spot in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League ...

: **''Winner'': 2011, 2012

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 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" () 2008 * Montenegrin Sportsperson of the Year: 2012 * EHF Hall of Fame in 2023.

References

External links

*
Bojana Popović
(archive) at Viborg HK {{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 for Montenegro Montenegrin people of Serbian descent Olympic medalists in handball Olympic silver medalists for Montenegro Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Montenegrin expatriate handball players Handball coaches of international teams Serbia and Montenegro female handball players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Montenegrin expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate handball players in Denmark