27.09.2014, 11:20
The saga begins for Gajic

BLOG: Last season's EHF Cup top scorer shares his pre-season travels and thoughts on being back in the luxury of the VELUX EHF Champions League

The saga begins for Gajic

Hi everyone!

I hope you guys are ready for another exciting season of handball. The VELUX EHF Champions League circus is starting again this weekend, and I am really excited about it.

I am meeting again with the competition with my club of Montpellier, after a season playing the EHF Cup. Even though we reached the final, last season was somehow difficult for me. But you've got to understand, for more than half of my played professional handball career in the Champions League! What a luxury!

Jokes aside, I am very happy to play it again, it is the biggest competition and all the best clubs are taking a part in it. The draw was a tough one for us, with Veszprem, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and Vardar Skopje in the same group as us. But I think it's quite good luck, we'll have to play those games without calculating.

But the thing I get most emotional about this season's Champions League is meeting again with Celje. I mean, this is the city where I was born, the club I first played handball and the confrontation will surely be something special for me. Even though I don't know many people anymore in the club, it still represents a lot of things.

And to be ready for all these huge confrontations, I had a very nice holiday this summer. We went back to Slovenia to see my family, especially my brother who has played in huge part in my life. Going back there is always a pleasure, as you can imagine. We had a big party after the World Championship qualifying games, and stayed in my home country for a couple more days.

With my girlfriend and my daughter, we then went for ten days in Croatia, went to the beach and relaxed, but I also started my personal physical preparation while in Croatia. I'm in awe of players still being the best in the world at 37 or 38, and I know it takes a lot of preparation. I usually don't think about handball for the first week of the holidays, and then my own preparation begins.

Even then, to me it's not proper handball, just keeping myself fit. It all went too quickly though, and soon we had to fly back home.

This year, we've been lucky with Montpellier because we've had the chance to visit amazing sites during the preparation. We've had the chance to climb the Pic Saint Loup, which is the highest mountain in the area; we went to Millau, climbed along the Via Ferrata. All in all, it was still a bit of a holiday during the preparation.

But now we're ready to take on the Champions League again. We've shown in the three first league matches that we can win against anyone, but also lose against anyone.

It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster for now and we'll probably now more about ourselves after the Rhein-Neckar Löwen game on Saturday. We know we'll be competing for the fourth place with Celje and Medvedi, and that we'll have to gain some points against the favourites in order to secure this spot.

So I hope you guys will be in front of your television, or even better in the stands in Mannheim to watch the first episode of our Champions League saga!

Take care,

Dragan Gajic

TEXT: Dragan Gajic, Montpellier Agglomeration right wing