Montenegro women's national handball team

Montenegro has been playing in official competitions since 2006.[1] They played for the first time during the qualifying tournament for the 2007 World Women's Handball Championship in Cheb, where they finished second with four wins and one defeat. A year later, Montenegro did not qualify for the 2008 European Women's Handball Championship after a defeat in the playoffs against Croatia. The same result occurred at qualifiers for the 2009 World Women's Handball Championship in China, as Montenegro lost to Sweden in the playoffs.

Montenegro's first significant success came in 2010. After passing the qualifiers without any defeats, the team participated in the 2010 European Women's Handball Championship in Denmark and Norway. Montenegro finished in sixth place, with 46 goals from Montenegro's Bojana Popović.

For the first time, Montenegro played at the IHF World Women's Handball Championship in 2011. After passing the group stage, Montenegro was eliminated by Spain in the round of 16.

On August 11, 2012, Montenegro won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In December 16, 2012, they became champions at the 2012 European Women's Handball Championship in Belgrade.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Montenegro passed the group round with two defeats but won elimination matches against France and Spain. In the final match, Montenegro was defeated by Norway 23–26. With their second place title, Montenegro won the first Olympic medal for Montenegro since their country became independent. Bojana Popović and Katarina Bulatović were prominent players on the team during this tournament.

At the 2012 European Women's Handball Championship in Serbia, Montenegro won its first title at a major handball championship. In the semi-finals, Montenegro defeated Serbia 27–26. In the finals, Montenegro defeated Norway 34–31, winning the championship. The players Katarina Bulatović and Jovanka Radičević played significant roles in the team's victory. With 56 goals, Bulatović was the top scorer of the championship.

Montenegro won both medals, in London and in Belgrade, with head coach Dragan Adžić.

After two successes in 2012, Montenegro was eliminated by Denmark in the round of 16 at the 2013 World Women's Handball Championship.

Montenegro did well in the 2014 European Women's Handball Championship. After making it to the semi-finals, the team was defeated by Spain. In the end, Montenegro finished in fourth place.

Montenegro made significant strides in the 2015 World Women's Handball Championship. After a notable win against Hungary 32–15, Montenegro eliminated Angola in the round of 16. However, in the quarterfinals, Norway defeated Montenegro 26–25. That was the first performance of Montenegro in the quarterfinals of a World Women's Handball Championship.

At their second appearance in the Summer Olympics, Montenegro did not perform as well, in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. With five defeats during the group stage, Montenegro finished in nearly last place.

After the Olympics, Montenegro made big changes to the team and recruited many new young players produced by ŽRK Budućnost. The first main competition for the newly formed team was at the 2016 European Women's Handball Championship, where Montenegro had the youngest team. With one win and two defeats, the team finished in 13th place.

In November 2017, The Handball Federation of Montenegro stated that the new head coach of the national team would be Per Johansson instead of Dragan Adžić, who had served the team for seven years. As a coach, Adžić led Montenegro to nine big international competitions, winning gold during the 2012 European Championship and silver during the Summer Olympics the same year.

With a new head coach, Montenegro finished sixth in the 2017 World Women's Handball Championship, with equal wins and losses, 3-1-3. The next year, they played at the 2018 European Women's Handball Championship in France but did not succeed. After six games, Montenegro finished the tournament in ninth place.

Montenegro has participated in two Summer Olympics (2012 and 2016). In 2012, the women's handball team won the first Olympic medal for Montenegro since their independence.

Olympic Games							Qualification
Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L		Pld	W	D	L
2012	2nd	8	4	1	3		3	3	0	0
2016	11th	5	0	0	5		3	2	1	0
2020	TBD						TBD
Total		13	4	1	8		6	5	1	0

Montenegro has participated in five World Championships. After failing to qualify for championships 2007 and 2009, they have participated in five consecutive tournaments. The best results Montenegro had were in 2015 and 2017, when they played in the quarterfinals.

World Championship							Qualification
Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L		Pld	W	D	L
2007	Did not qualify						5	4	0	1
2009							7	5	1	1
2011	10th	6	3	0	3		2	2	0	0
2013	11th	6	4	0	2		DNP
2015	8th	9	5	1	3		2	1	1	0
2017	6th	7	3	1	3		2	1	0	1
2019	5th	9	7	0	2		2	1	0	1
2021	To be determined						TBD
// 2023
/ 2025
2027
Total		37	22	2	13		20	14	2	4

Montenegro has participated in seven European Championships. After having failed to qualify for the European Championship 2008, they have participated in all subsequent tournaments.Montenegro was the European champion in 2012 and a semi-finalist in 2014 and will co-host the 2022 edition along with Slovenia and North Macedonia.

European Championship							Qualification
Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L		Pld	W	D	L
2008	Did not qualify						6	4	0	2
2010	6th	7	4	0	3		6	5	1	0
2012	1st	8	7	0	1		6	5	0	1
2014	4th	8	5	0	3		6	5	1	0
2016	13th	3	1	0	2		6	5	0	1
2018	9th	6	3	0	3		6	6	0	0
/ 2020	Qualified						Cancelled
// 2022	Qualified as co-host						Qualified as co-host
// 2024	To be determined						TBD
Total		32	20	0	12	36	30	2	4

Squad for the 2019 World Women's Handball Championship.[2][3]

Head coach: Per Johansson

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 1 GK Marina Rajčić (1993-08-24) 24 August 1993 1.78 m 119 2 ŽRK Budućnost 4 RW Jovanka Radičević (1986-10-23) 23 October 1986 1.69 m 159 874 ŽRK Budućnost 9 LB Đurđina Jauković (1997-02-24) 24 February 1997 1.85 m 64 198 Brest Bretagne 15 RB Andrea Klikovac (1991-05-05) 5 May 1991 1.80 m 77 48 CSM București 16 GK Ljubica Nenezić (1997-01-15) 15 January 1997 1.79 m 27 0 HC Dunărea Brăila 20 RB Nikolina Knežević (2000-07-02) 2 July 2000 1.83 m 5 2 CSU Danubius Galați 23 RW Dijana Ujkić (1996-07-05) 5 July 1996 1.72 m 36 36 SCM Gloria Buzău 27 RB Sanja Premović (1992-11-27) 27 November 1992 1.82 m 37 5 HC Dunărea Brăila 32 RB Katarina Bulatović (1984-11-15) 15 November 1984 1.90 m 94 473 Győri ETO KC 34 P Tatjana Brnović (1998-11-09) 9 November 1998 1.84 m 32 57 ŽRK Budućnost 43 GK Marta Batinović (1990-04-20) 20 April 1990 1.88 m 11 0 SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea 55 LW Dijana Mugoša (1995-10-22) 22 October 1995 1.69 m 14 8 RK Podravka 66 P Ema Ramusović (1996-11-28) 28 November 1996 1.87 m 58 49 ŽRK Budućnost 77 LW Majda Mehmedović (1990-05-25) 25 May 1990 1.69 m 118 314 ŽRK Budućnost 80 LB Jelena Despotović (1994-04-30) 30 April 1994 1.83 m 80 85 Debreceni VSC 90 CB Milena Raičević (1990-03-12) 12 March 1990 1.78 m 153 478 ŽRK Budućnost 96 CB/LW Itana Grbić (1996-09-01) 1 September 1996 1.69 m 49 48 ŽRK Budućnost

• Head Coach: Per Johansson
• Assistant Coach: Adrian Vasile
• Goalkeeping Coach: Novak Ristović
• Fitness Coach: Adrian Vasile
• Physiotherapist: Bojan Milošević
• Physiotherapist: Mitar Vujović
• Head of Delegation: Arijan Efović

Since independence, Montenegro has been led by three different coaches. During the first years, the head coach was Nikola Petrović. After Petrović, Montenegro was led by Gyula Zsiga and then by Dragan Adžić, who was the most successful head coach.

Coach	From	To	Record*					Championship
			M	W	D	L	Win %
Nikola Petrović	2006	2008	11	8	0	3	072.73	None
Gyula Zsiga	2008	2010	13	10	2	1	076.92	None
Dragan Adžić	2010	2017	92	59	5	28	064.13	EC 2010 (6th); WC 2011 (10th); OG 2012 (2nd); EC 2012 (1st); WC 2013 (11th); EC 2014 (4th); WC 2015 (8th); OG 2016 (11th); EC 2016 (13th)
Per Johansson	2017		30	21	1	8	070.00	WC 2017 (6th); EC 2018 (9th);WC 2019 (5th)

* Data are only for official matches (qualifiers, European Championship, World Championship, Olympic Games).