High ambitions in Croatia

At Monday´s meeting of Podravka Vegeta´s Management Board, the Croatian club announced the extension of contract for left-back Sanja Damnjanović. The Serbian international has declined the offers of several top European clubs.

Damnjanović commented: "To our mutual pleasure I have made an agreement with HC Podravka to extend our cooperation and sign a contract for one year. I'm happy because I geel favorable here and in my opionion I've made the right decision. There were lots of offers for me but the tipping factors had been good relationships with the club and mutual ambitions in sport."

The Podravka management added: "We are exceptionally pleased with the contiunation of cooperation with Sanja Damnjanović in the next season because we have showed our sport abmition in that way. It is our wish that we achieve even better results in the following seasons and continue to develop our players and other segments of our club. We hope that the club will again be in the top of european woman handball."

In addition, Veszprém Barabás KC´s Anita Bulath´s signing was also announced, and she is the first addition to the new squad of the Croatian champions. Bulath has signed a two-year contract starting in the summer of 2012.

With Lidija Horvat, who also extended her contract recently, the Hungarian National Team player will form a classy duo at the right-back position.

With the addition of the quality right-back from Hungary, the Croats will again have high ambitions to compete among Europe´s elite after suffering early exits in the last three editions of the prestigious EHF Champions League.

In the upcoming season, Podravka´s objective will be to reach the Main Round, or at least, go onto the Cup Winners' Cup as the third-ranked team after the first stage.

After a three-year break the 28-year-old Hungarian Bulath is returning to the city of Koprivnica, where she played for two consecutive years between 2007 and 2009.

With no remaining obligations in any European competitions, Podravka are already preparing for next season. 

Coach Neven Hrupec´s team will play two preparation games this week, facing Hypo-NÖ at 6 pm on the 22nd February, whilst a second match against the Austrians will follow the day after at 11 am. Admission to both games is free.