In the future, the Montenegrin women's handball team could be stronger for two more Serbian handball players, right wing Željka Nikolić and right back Jelena Živković (born in 1991), Sportski žurnal reports.
As the Belgrade newspaper writes, "the pearls and most talented children of Serbian handball", members of the cadet national team of Serbia, which won a silver medal at the World Championship in Slovakia in 2008 (defeated by Russia in the final, and the pivot Dragana Cvijić also played in that team, since this summer member of Budućnosti), did not appear at yesterday's gathering of the Serbian national team in Belgrade for the "Carpathian Cup" and the double match with Croatia.
The newspaper states that the reason for the absence of decisions is that Željka Nikolić and Jelena Živković did not play for Serbia, because they chose to play for Montenegro.
"I don't know what's going on, I was expecting them to appear in the depths of my soul. I called Nikolić and her father told me that she will no longer play for Serbia, and nobody can find Živković yet, she doesn't answer the phone, so I can't say what's going on," said Serbian coach Saša Bošković. who succeeded the Montenegrin expert Duško Milić in that place.
The Montenegrin national team already has five players who were born in Serbia or who grew up in Serbian clubs - Bojana Petrović, Mirjana Milenković, Ana Đokić, Katarina Bulatović and Ana Radović, who was born in Sarajevo.
Interestingly, the website of ŽRK Budućnost, of which he is a member, states that Željka Nikolić has Montenegrin citizenship, although he was registered as a citizen of Serbia to the European Handball Federation for competition in the Champions League!
Nikolićeva, a native of Priboj, arrived in Budućnost from Vrnjačka Banja in the summer of last year (before that she also played for Crvena zvezda), but she played the first part of the season on loan in Biseri, before arriving at Budućnost in the spring, where this year she was not in the Champions League because she is the third option on the right wing, after Radmila Miljanić and Dijana Jovetić (ex Golubić).
Jelena Živković moved from Zaječar to the Hungarian Ferencvaros this summer, and the native of Zrenjanin started her career in Proleter, and also played for Kikinda.
The sports journal states that "well-informed sources claim that there has been speculation about this for a long time in handball circles, that even the Handball Federation of Serbia was aware of the case"...
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