Italy back on handball map after 28 years! “Dream came true, great mentality help us to grow!
Italy qualified for IHF World Championship 2025 for the second time in the history!
Italians made dream came true in two wins over Montenegro which put their country on the handball map after 28 years since their debut at Japan 1997.
Azzurri, led by Riccardo Trillini, wrote the golden chapter of the history:
“A dream has come true for all of us. We had a responsibility on our shoulders towards all the fans, enthusiasts, coaches, male and female players, managers. They can all raise their heads when it comes to Italian handball. I believe that it is an improvement that has arrived little by little, but that it required an important result, we knew it. We started from afar in recent years. I thank the Federation for letting us work hard, as had not happened previously. I thank all the players who have joined the national team in recent years, starting with Maione, Fovio, Skatar, Sonnerer and I would like to name them all… They have transmitted a great mentality and helped us grow. And finally I would like to extend a special thank you to Dean (Turkovic ed.) so that he remembers that when the ball was hot, he always put it inside the near post. I don’t know how he did it, just like today: no one knows how, we came to win in Podgorica and we are very happy.”
The joy of captain Andrea Parisini: “We have written history. I hope that this step can make people discover that this sport exists and that there are kids who make great sacrifices to make themselves known and to make them known. Today we did something crazy. It was one thing to come here to suffer, to manage the result; we, however, said to ourselves that they were the same as Thursday and we wanted to demonstrate that Conversano’s victory was not an episode. We played our game, imposed our speed and did something special. I’m proud of these guys, of the movement, of the work that has been done in recent years, including beautiful moments but also failures, near-miss qualifications. This time we’re here. Let’s go to the World Cup. It will remain in the history of our handball.”
