Telekom Veszprem became the first team to qualify for this season’s SEHA - Gazprom League Final 4 tournament in Zadar. Zadar has so far been a happy place for Hungarians who still haven’t lost a single match in the ‘Kresimir Cosic’ sports hall.

The goal will surely be no different this season for coach Momir Ilic and his guys who will try to go for a three-peat and secure their fifth overall SEHA - Gazprom League title. That would indeed be a solid confidence booster for a team that has not really finished last season the way they wanted, losing the Hungarian national championship (last-second defeat against Szeged) and EHF Champions League semi-final in Cologne (narrow loss versus Kielce).

The roster looks a bit different but still incredibly well and stacked. One of the best scorers of German Bundesliga – Icelandic national team player Bjarki Mar Elisson joined the team this summer arriving from TBV Lemgo-Lippe to replace Macedonian winger Dejan Manaskov who signed with Vardar 1961. Elisson joined Croatian national team player Manuel Strlek on the left which means coach Ilic can hardly go wrong with his left-winger choice. Another reinforcement for Hungarian runners-up is Egyptian star playmaker Yehia El-Deraa. El-Deraa will join Kentin Mahe and Peter Lukacs as well as Petar Nenadic who can also cover the centre back position. The club decided to part ways with Mate Lekai after nine seasons. Spanish right-back Jorge Maqueda left to join French HBC Nantes which means Hungarian Zoran Ilic will get full support from the coaching staff to become a reliable partner for one of the best right-backs in the world right now – Egyptian Yahia Omar. Belarussian “goal-machine” Mikita Vailupau will from this season share minutes with Gasper Marguc on the right side and Dragan Pechmalbec, the 26-year-old Serbian national team player, joined Adrian Sipos, Blaz Blagotinsek and Andreas Nilsson on the line.
For the third season in a row, goalkeeping minutes will be split between Rodrigo Coralles and Vladimir Cupara.

A roster like this obviously has a bit of an expectations burden and their first opportunity to show what they are capable of will be on the first weekend of September in Zadar.

Photo credit: kolektiffimages