The handball World Cup in their own country and the career in the Croatian national jersey seemed to end-on Friday ex-world handball player Domagoj Duvnjak suddenly looked with it again. He gave his comeback completely surprisingly against Iceland.
In the 25th minute, the Croatian captain of coach Dagur Sigurdsson was actually substituted – and came directly with an assist to the meantime 18:10 for Croatia. Under the frenetic cheers in the arena in the Croatian capital Zagreb, the hosts led to the break with 20:12.
For the playmaker who wants to end the career in the national jersey after the World Cup in his own country, the tournament was already over. In the second preliminary round game against Argentina on the calf, “Due” was injured, all calculated with the World Cup and premature end of the international career.
Suddenly hope in the middle of the week
But in the middle of this week there was suddenly hope, the calf was better than initially feared. As the sports show learned, a possible comeback from Duvnjak was promised for the possible co-phase. Instead, the second round game was ready again.
Hardly anyone had correctly expected it. His club coach and ex-player Filip Jicha had only said yesterday that captain Duvnjak would not be available to the German handball record champion THW Kiel on the restart of the Bundesliga on February 8th. “I would classify a commitment to Magdeburg in the ‘little miracle’ category,” said the 42 -year Czech to the “Kieler Nachrichten”. The return on January 24th is allocated to the “Great Miracle” category.
Seven times podium, but never gold
So the little hope remains that Duvnjak can fulfill his last big dream: the 2013 world handball player was seven times at world and European championships and Olympic games on the podium – but it has never been enough for gold.