Milena Raičević née Knežević, (born 12 March 1990) is a retired Montenegrin international

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

er for the Montenegrin national team.

International career

She was part of the Montenegro international set-up since the younger age categories and won the bronze medal at the 2010 Junior World Championship. She made her championship debut in the

2010 European Women's Handball Championship The 2010 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark and Norway from 7 to 19 December. It was the first European Championship hosted by two countries. Norway won their overall 5th gold medal, when they defeated first time finalist ...

. A year later she participated at the

2011 World Women's Handball Championship The 2011 World Women's Handball Championship was the 20th edition of the international championship tournament in women's Team sport handball that is governed by the International Handball Federation (IHF). Brazil hosted the event from 2–18 De ...

in Brazil. In 2012, she participated in 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 ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where she was a silver medalist after Montenegro lost the final match against Norway 26–23. Later in 2012 she became a European Champion with Montenegro when they took revenge against Norway in the final at the

2012 European Women's Handball Championship The 2012 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Serbia from 4 to 16 December. Originally the tournament was scheduled to be held in the Netherlands but on 4 June 2012 the Dutch Handball Federation withdrew from the organization. Subse ...

, winning the final 34–31 after overtime. Knežević scored 10 goals in the final game and a total of 41 in the championship. She later was part of the Montenegrin teams during the

2013 World Women's Handball Championship The 2013 World Women's Handball Championship, the 21st event hosted by the International Handball Federation (IHF), was held in Serbia from 6 to 22 December 2013.2014 European Women's Handball Championship The 2014 European Women's Handball Championship was the eleventh continental tournament for women's national teams, organized by the European Handball Federation. The second jointly hosted edition in the competition's history took place in Hunga ...

2015 World Women's Handball Championship The 2015 IHF World Women's Handball Championship, the 22nd event hosted by the International Handball Federation, was held in Denmark. The decision to select Denmark as the host was announced on 27 January 2011. In the final Norway won 31–23 ag ...

2016 Olympic Games The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and the

2016 European Women's Handball Championship The 2016 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Sweden from 4 to 18 December 2016. It was the second time that Sweden hosts the tournament, after it also hosted the 2006 European Women's Handball Championship. Sweden was awarded the c ...

. Raičević was named captain of the Montenegrin national team in 2016.

Club career

Raičević has represented

ŽRK Budućnost Podgorica ŽRK Budućnost is a professional women's handball team from Podgorica, Montenegro (previously, the club also appeared under the names ZRK Budućnost MONET, Budućnost Brillant, Budućnost Bemax and Budućnost Titograd). Among the numerous title ...

her entire senior career. She was part of the clubs squad in the 2007/2008 season, but she didn't play her first European Cup-match until the 2008/2009 season. She ended up with a total of 42 goals during the

EHF Women's Champions League 2008/09 EHF may refer to: Science and technology * Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola virus disease, a disease of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses * EHF (gene), ETS homologous factor, a human gene * Extended Hunk Format, a version of the Ami ...

season.

has won all of the Montenegrin Championship and Cup titles ever since the inaugural season of 2006/07, meaning Raičević has 8 championship titles and 8 cup titles. She's also a double winner of the

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

winner with Budućnost, having won the competition in 2012 and 2015. She also won the

EHF Women's Cup Winners' Cup The Women's EHF Cup Winners' Cup was the official competition for women's handball clubs of Europe that won their national cup, and took place every year from 1976 to 2016 (until 1993 organized by IHF instead of EHF). From the 2016–17 season, t ...

the 2009–2010 season, scoring 16 goals in 8 matches. As of 5 March 2017 she has played 105 matches in the

and scored 290 goals.

Personal life

Milena Knežević started playing handball with her twin sister Dragana when they were young. Dragana Knežević played one European Cup season for WHC "Petrol Bonus" Podgorica in 2007/2008. Her older brother Ivan Knežević is a Montenegrin soccer player. Milena Knežević married Marko Raičević in 2015, and parts of their wedding can be seen in a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

video. She made headlines when she lost her temper during an

-match against Győri Audi ETO KC when she

headbutt A headbutt or butt is a targeted strike (attack), strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's Skull#Humans, cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of ...

ed Hungarian handballer Anita Görbicz in 2014. She was later banned for 2 matches for this incident. She later issued an apology on her

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

-page directed at Görbicz, her club and the fans.

Achievements

*Montenegrin Championship: **''Winner'': 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 *Montenegrin Cup: **''Winner'': 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 *Women's Regional Handball League: **''Winner'': 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 *

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'': 2012, 2015 **''Finalist'': 2014 **''Semifinalist'': 2011 *

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

: **''Winner'': 2012 *

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 *

EHF Cup Winners' Cup The EHF Cup Winners' Cup was the official competition for men's and women's handball clubs of Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocea ...

: **''Winner'': 2010 * Junior World Championship: **''Bronze Medalist'': 2010

Honors

* Junior World Championship: **''Best left back'': 2010 *

: **''Third best goal scorer'': 2012/2013: 86 goals

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raicevic, Milena 1990 births Living people Handball players from Podgorica Montenegrin female handball players 21st-century Montenegrin sportswomen Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Montenegro Olympic medalists in handball Olympic silver medalists for Montenegro Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games medalists in handball Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Montenegro Handball players at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Montenegrin expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate handball players in Turkey Montenegrin expatriate handball players in Romania