09.11.2007, 01:53
Kavticnik proud to play for Kiel

Slovenian right winger of Vid Kavticnik is not jealous of the other stars in the squad, but happy to play and win so much in THW Kiel.

Kavticnik proud to play for Kiel

It depends on your position whether you stand in bright light or dark shadow, doesn’t it?

Vid Kavticnik plays on the right wing of THW Kiel with many world class players such as Nikola Karabatic, Stefan Lövgren, Thierry Omeyer or Markus Ahlm in the team. However, the Slovenian international does not believe that there would be a difference between the players:

“I don’t stand in the shadow. I’m very proud to play in this team with players like these and I’m proud to get so much time to play in this young team with great perspectives,” he says.

Kavticnik also hopes to stay longer:

“My contract ends at the end of the season, butI think it’s possible to stay longer in Kiel.”

Kavticnik arrived to Kiel from Slovenia in 2005. In fact, he won one of his titles this year in Slovenia.

“It was great for me to play in Celje at the Champions Trophy because the spectators are great. The last time I played in Celje was at the EURO 2004 when we won silver medal. But this time it was even better as we won the title,” says Kavticnik.

Despite winning the Champions League, German Cup, German championship and German super cup this year, the “Champions Trophy 2007” title was something special for him.

“It’s not the most important title, but it was very good for our self-confidence to win in Celje with nearly no substitutes on the bench as Karabatic, Jicha, Andersson and Zeitz were injured.”

After winning the CL finals against Flensburg-Handewitt last season, it’s again looking good for Kiel: Four matches, four victories – but Kavticnik is aiming for more:

“We want to win also the matches five and six and then we are number one in our group. This might be an advantage for the second group phase, but then we will only meet top class teams.”

Kavticnik did not expect to have so much success this year:

“In case anybody would have told me on the 1st of January that I will win five titles with Kiel, I would have told him that we has totally stupid. But at the end we won all possible titles. We won, because we were a real team, not only players. Everybody helped each other.”

He shares the typical positive thinking of THW:

“It’s always our objective to win every match, every title, we always give 100 percent.”

And since October, Kavticnik is not the only Slovenian player of THW as after the injuries of Karabatic, Jicha and Andersson, Kiel signed Ales Pajovic, a back court substitute for three month. Pajovic, coming from from Ciudad Real, plays only Bundesliga, not Champions League games.

“It’s great to play with him, because Ales is always smiling, joking, he’s like a big child. And he is a very important player for us.”

In the German handball magazine, HANDBALLWOCHE, Kavticnik was voted three times into the team of the week. “This means nothing for me, it’s good, but it’s not important. The only important thing is winning with the team, winning with THW.”

TEXT: Björn Pazen