RK Vardar


RK Vardar 1961 is a handball club from Skopje, North Macedonia. The team is current regional SEHA League and EHF Champions League title holder. Vardar is the most successful handball team in the country, having won thirteen national League and Cup titles.

History

RK Vardar was founded in 1961, as part of the Vardar Sports Club in Skopje, which had been founded in 1947.
"RK Grafichar Skopje" was club established in 1948, which in terms of rank and quality was right behind " Rabotnichki". In 1961 "Grafichar" renamed itself to "Vardar" and almost the entire team of the club "RK Partizan Skopje" joined the team. - Skopje's club "Rabotnichki" in that period is experiencing a crisis and is no longer the strong first league team from the past, and as a more ambitious club "Vardar" enters the scene. Here a solid team was created, in which the bearers of the game were goalkeeper, Jovanovski, then Atanasovski, Zdravkovski, Savevski, Bozinovski etc.
All those talented boys promised a good future, with coach Boskos, who was armed with great knowledge gained in at the time handball superpower Romania, where he lived until moving to Macedonia.
Everything was done ambitiously and after all the obstacles were overcome and the fiercest opponents were defeated in 1976, "Vardar" became member of the first league.They played there for 2 seasons.While in the 80s they spent most of the time in the Second division.
The handball team rose to power again in the late 1990s becoming one of the two clubs to dominate the Macedonian handball scene after the independence of the country.
They have participated in the EHF Champions League eleven times and made it to the semifinals of the Cup Winner's Cup three times. Except for 2005, when they came in 4th place, the club has achieved either championship or runner-up in the Macedonian Super League during the past decade since 1999. They achieved a record winner of the Macedonian handball championship by winning their twelfth title in 2018 and are the recent record cup winner with thirteen. On 15 April 2012, Vardar defeated Metalurg at the Zagreb Arena to become the first SEHA League champion. Since then, the team has five titles in the SEHA League. The club started the new 2013–14 season with a new management structure, Sergey Samsonenko as a new proprietary and a sport director of the club while Mihajlo Mihajlovski has become an honorary club chairman.
The season of 2016–17 was the most successful for the team because they managed to win the EHF Champions League and the regional SEHA League including the two main domestic championships, the national Handball Super League and the national Handball Cup. Two days after winning the EHF Champions League the team celebrated the victory with approximately 150,000 people in a ceremony on the Macedonia Square in Skopje. Because of the huge success, Gjorgje Ivanov, at the time President of the Republic of Macedonia, awarded the members of the handball club Vardar a Medal of Merit for the results they achieved, especially for winning the Champions League title. The club was awarded the national charter of the country.
In the 2018–19 season, the team once again managed to win the EHF Champions League, the regional SEHA League and the main domestic championship, the Handball Super League of North Macedonia. One day after winning the EHF Champions League the team arrived in the country with a private jet and celebrated the victory with approximately 250,000 people in a central ceremony at the Macedonia Square in Skopje.

Accomplishments

Domestic competitions

RK Vardar itself is the owner of the Jane Sandanski Arena where they play all their home matches in the EHF Champions League, the regional SEHA League and in the domestic competitions. It's a modern complex with a sports hall of 7.500 seats. It has its own hotel, spa center, hospital and swimming pool.
The arena is named after the Macedonian revolutionary Jane Sandanski.

Team

Current squad

;Goalkeepers
;Left Wingers
;Right Wingers
;Line players
;Left Backs
;Central Backs
;Right Backs
; Joining
; Leaving

Professional staff

Management

Former club members

Notable former players

EHF Champions League

EHF Cup

EHF Cup Winners' Cup

Statistics

All–time Top 10 Scorers in the EHF Champions League

RankNameSeasonsGoals
1 Timur Dibirov7516
2 Igor Karačić6351
3 Alex Dujshebaev4261
4 Ivan Čupić4231
5 Daniil Shishkarev6194
6 Dainis Krištopāns3190
7 Luka Cindrić3176
8 Vuko Borozan3156
9 Stojanče Stoilov7138
10 Stevče Aluševski5121

Most appearances in the EHF Champions League

RankNameSeasonsAppearances
1 Timur Dibirov7115
2 Daniil Shishkarev6101
3 Stojanče Stoilov7100
4 Igor Karačić695
5 Ilija Abutović579
6 Ivan Čupić467
7 Arpad Šterbik465
8 Alex Dujshebaev460
9 Strahinja Milić559
10 Luka Cindrić353
10 Jorge Maqueda353
10 Mijajlo Marsenić353

Individual awards in the EHF Champions League