7m - Boris Rojevic: “We definitely won’t surrender against Veszprem!“

Boris Rojevic

Vojvodina Novi Sad will in Quarter final battle for SEHA Final 4 spot in Zadar meet two-time SEHA champions Telekom Veszprem.

In less than two years on the coaching position of the best Serbian team, young coach Boris Rojevic managed to win everything in Serbia. Improvement his team has been showing both last and this season, especially in the regional competition, is a clear sign that team from Slana bara is slowly getting ready to become competitive on the European stage.

How satisfied are you with the season so far?
I am very satisfied with what we’ve accomplished both this and last season. We proved we have a quality team this season extending a series of good performances. We managed to leave four good teams behind us and we most definitely won’t surrender even against a strong team like Telekom Veszprem.

Hungarians will however be favorites in this duel.
Veszprem are a big team that can defeat almost everyone on the biggest European stage by ten goals and that speaks a lot. They were able to deal easily with teams like Vardar, Porto and Motor Zaporozhye. Even as visitors. In my opinion, we’re here talking about one of the best teams in Europe at the moment. We will not have result pressure on our shoulders in those games. Instead, we’ll just take them as a reward for all the good things we’ve done as a team since August. Goal is to enjoy those matches as much as possible. You simply don’t play such a team that often.

How do you like new SEHA - Gazprom League system?
I feel like it suits teams that are competing in EHF Champions League or playing in the national championship at the same time better. For others it can be a bit difficult and this will probably force us to think and talk about it in the future.

Serbian Play-Offs will be interesting with Vojvodina and Metaloplastika alongside Dinamo Pancevo, Zeleznicar...
Our biggest rivals will be Dinamo and Metaloplastika. They managed to keep their players while at the same time bringing a few new names and they are much stronger now. We’ve, on the other hand, lost a few players from last season and I feel like we are a bit weaker now than we were last season. It will be a tough battle, that’s for sure. I feel like Dinamo are a bit stronger than Metaloplastika is at the moment because they have an experienced roster.

You’ve managed to become Serbian champion twice in only 14 months which means you are this season going for a hat-trick. Do you already have a favorite trophy?
First title is, of course, the sweetest one. Second has bigger importance for me however because that was ‘my team’, I’ve spent ten months with those guys and that title felt completely different.

Vojvodina is a bit weaker in defense this season. Are there, on the other hand, any improvements?
Attack. Nemanja Pribak is the brain of this team definitely and now we’ve also signed Rastko Stojkovic. He will play although he’s not fully ready yet because he was training only twice per week since last summer when his last contract ended. Despite of that, he definitely brought a new kind of energy. I’ve heard a lot about him and I can say he is a really positive guy. I believe he’ll in a month be able to get back to the right place physically and help us a lot. He is full of instructions for our youngsters. I believe he will prove to be a good signing for us.

You are dominating in Serbia but still haven’t managed to make a step forward in EHF competition.
Government in Serbia has decided to help volleyball with certain costs and I feel like it would be fair to do the same with handball. Playing on the European level is a financial question, not a question of whether we want it or not.