 Duvnjak awarded best Bundesliga player
On Saturday, his 25th birthday, he scored eleven times in the victorious VELUX EHF Champions League semi-final against Kiel (39:33) and added two decisive goals the following day in extra-time of the VELUX EHF Champions League final against Barcelona (30:29) to raise the most prestigious trophy in club handball.
Just two days later, the series of awards continued for Domagoj Duvnjak, as coaches and managers of all German Bundesliga clubs voted the Croat as the best player of the 2012/13 season.
Duvnjak is the first ever Hamburg player to win this award in the history of the voting (since 2002).
‘Dule’ topped the ranking ahead of two more VELUX EHF Champions League participants: Filip Jicha (THW Kiel) and Thomas Mogensen (SG Flensburg-Handewitt).
The award trophy will handed over to Duvnjak on Wednesday (5 June) during HSV’s final Bundesliga home match against Lemgo, when the team will also present the VELUX EHF Champions League trophy to their fans.
Duvnjak succeeds three time EHF Champions League winner Kim Andersson (2012 playing for THW Kiel, now at KIF Kolding) and former VELUX EHF Champions League top scorer Uwe Gensheimer (2011, Rhein Neckar Löwen) as the winner of this award.
Duvnjak transferred to HSV in 2009 from RK Zagreb and has become a key figure since his arrival. In 2010 he became German Cup winner, in 2011 German champion – and on Sunday he won his first European title at club level in Cologne.
Duvnjak’s career began in 2006, when he led Croatia to the gold medal at the European Youth Championship and was awarded most valuable player of the tournament.
At the age of 18 he became Croatian champion for the first of three times – and in 2009 he played his first major tournament with the Croatian men’s national team, winning the silver medal at the World Championships on home ground.
He later added silver (2010) and a bronze medal (2012) at EHF EURO events and a bronze medal each at the Olympics (2012) and World Championship (2013) to his tally. In Spain, he was additionally awarded best left of the World Championship.
TEXT: Björn Pazen / cor
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