The last three minutes of the Champions League group stage brought the curtain down on the season of Buducnost's handball team. They deserved it. Bojana Popović and its players were criticized for failing to preserve a huge plus three against Rapid in such a short time, but much more than those 180 seconds, the fate of this season was determined by twenty days in July 2024.
- On this day, the club is closing down - she said at the time Maja Bulatović, legend and director of Buducnost.
Everything happened less than two weeks before the start of preparations for the new season, which was announced much earlier to mark the return of the two-time European champion to the big stories.
Almost all of the reinforcements that were agreed upon left Podgorica, and Buducnost was saved from closure by Glavni grad, which took over ownership of the club.
The team is somehow put together, and Bojana Popović, Maja Savić and the rest of the team set off into the unknown... There were big points, like against Győr, the European champions, or Vipers and Brest, much stronger teams at the moment, but somehow everything stopped in those three minutes. And maybe the elimination was also a symbolic warning that a season like this would never happen again.
"It is precisely because of this that the next season is in the fog," since it is known that all serious clubs are resolving the issue of reinforcements and team composition while the current battles in the Champions League are ongoing.
And Buducnost currently does not know who from the current squad will remain for next season, nor has the Board of Directors been formed yet, and they will have to look for reinforcements among the players who have not yet resolved their status for next season.
- We'll see what happens, something should start happening this week, a Board of Directors should be formed and we should know where we stand, what our composition will be and how everything will go. It's really difficult, but one has to look for a new motive, to believe that things will get better. But let's let others make the moves now - said Bojana Popović after the elimination from Rapid.
What is important is that Buducnost should now have security, that they are not dependent on the main sponsor like last summer, but the question is how much more time needs to pass before the 2012 and 2015 European champions can once again be a team capable of great things in the Champions League.
So we will have to wait a few more days for the new Board of Directors, and the new president should be Nikola Tripkovic, President of the Board of Directors of the Development Bank. Sponsors that the Capital City should provide are also mentioned...
However, it is too late for some things, so if enthusiasm and care for Buducnost are not lost in the meantime, the real things could only be expected for the 2026/27 season.
Is Itana coming back? Milena wanted "lionesses"
The first task of the new Board of Directors of ŽRK Budućnost will be to retain the girls who were the team leaders this season, such as Jelena Radivojević or Armel Atingra, and then to try to strengthen the team to some extent.
Itana Grbić, a club kid who is playing for Crimea this season, could return to Podgorica.
In recent days, Milena Raičević was also in the running for president, and her vision was to bring most of the Montenegrin national team members to Buducnost, in order to strengthen the team, but also to slowly start the mission of the "2028 Olympic Games".
However, there is every chance that Nikola Tripković will be elected, and after that, there will be clearer questions about staying and reinforcements.
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