Tominec chooses Croatia

Croatia already boast two world class players on the right wing, the prolific Ivan Čupić and Zlatko Horvat, but an unexpexted reinforcement has arrived after Swiss-born youngster Nik Tominec decided to play for one of the countries of his roots.

The 22-year old Tominec, whose father is Slovenian and mother Croatian, will face stiff competition to break into the national team as he will also be up against Zagreb’s Jerko Matulić, who has already made his international debut.

Tominec had previously turned down offers to play for either Switzerland or Slovenia and described how the initiative arose for him to join the Croatian national team.

"After a VELUX EHF Champions League game I played with  Kadetten away to Zagreb, the Croatian national team top officials showed interest in me and I had several telephone conversations with coach Slavko Goluža," Tominec told the www.siol.net website.

"It was a tough decision to make because my father is Slovenian, my mother Croatian and I was born in Switzerland, but I chose Croatia because  Ivano Balić was always my childhood idol and I dreamed of playing one day for a team like the one he led," he added.

"It was entirely my decision and my family fully supported me."

Whether Goluža includes Tominec in his roster for Croatia’s last two EHF EURO 2014 qualifiers away to Slovakia and at home to Latvia in June remains to be seen.

Given that the Croatians have six points from four games and are almost assured of reaching next year’s tournament in Denmark, the two fixtures against unheralded rivals could be an ideal opportunity for Tominec to make his international debut.

Croatia top group 4 on goal difference ahead of Hungary, having lost to their neighbours 20:18 before beating them 30:26 last week.