Budućnost prepares for new season

In the shadow of the Olympic Games in London, Budućnost began their preparations for the next season in which the team from Podgorica will try to defend four titles – the domestic championship title, the national cup, the regional league and the most important title – the Women's EHF Champions League.

Given the fact that in the upcoming season the team is much younger and weaker than last season, Budućnost have adapted their ambitions in the Women's EHF Champions League – the first and only goal right now is to make it to the Main Round.

In the absence of head coach Dragan Adžić and his assistant Vlatko Đonović, who are at the Olympic Games in London with the national team of Montenegro, the squad is practicing under the command of fitness coach, Slovenian Marko Mrak and goalkeepers’s coach Novak Ristović.

Right now eight senior and seven junior players are working hard twice a day. Right backs Elena Gjorgijevska and Jelena Živković, right wing Željka Nikolić, Biljana Pavicević who is back in Budućnost after playing in Biseri and Macedonian Žito Prilep, left backs Ivan Bozović and Jelena Trifunović, goalkeeper Katarina Bralo and pivot Katarina Ježić are waiting for their team mates to join them.

“Because of the heat, we start practising outside at 7 a.m. All the girls work hard, with excellent tolerance of the heat. The team will be complete in a few days, after the end of the Olympic Games in London,” said Novak Ristović.

Currently, Budućnost is missing the national goalkeeper Marina Vukčević, pivot Suzana Lazović, wings Majda Mehmedović and Radmila Miljanić, and central backs Milena Knežević and Anđela Bulatović.

Goalkeeper Clara Woltering and line player Serbian Dragana Cvijić are watching the Olympic Games in London. They will miss the first half of the season due to knee surgery. 

Budućnost has to put up with a lot of changes over the summer – Bojana Popović and Maja Savić decided to end their career while seven more players left the club – goalkeeper Sonja Barjaktarović (Rostov Don, Russia), central back Ana Radović (Kif Kolding, Denmark), right backs Katarina Bulatović (C.S. "Oltchim" Rm. Valcea, Romania) and Jelena Marković (Dunarea, Romania), line player Ana Đokić, left back Adriana Tacalie (Brasov, Romania) and right wing Dijana Jovetić.

However some new players have been signed as well; French left back Claudine Mendy (Metz Handball), Jelena Živković (FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria), Jelena Trifunović, Katarina Bralo (HBC Nimes, France), Katarina Ježić (Lokomotiva, Croatia) and Biljana Pavićević (Žito Prilep, FYR Macedonia) joined the team.

Budućnost has scheduled two tournaments over the preparation period, the Szabella Cup in Hungary and a tournament in Koprivnica, Croatia, both in late August.