Jaka Malus: The former pupil will face the teacher

When Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022, all clubs from Russia and Belarus were suspended from international competitions by the EHF and most of their foreign players left. Malus spent a short stint at Balonmano Sinfin in Spain, but in summer 2022 moved again.

“To live in three countries, with three cultures and three languages within six months was really tough. When I went to Brest, I learnt Russian and spoke it quite well. In Spain, no one spoke English, there was a real language barrier,” he says.

Since summer 2022 Jaka Malus learns another language – German. “I have started and know some words, it gets better and better,” he says.

But at his new club Frisch Auf Göppingen, he can also speak his mother tongue, with two other Slovenians – Vid Poteko and Blaz Blagotinsek – also in his new team, alongside Croats Marin Sego, Josip Sarac and Kresimir Kozina.

“We have a golden rule. In the dressing room we are only allowed to speak German or English, outside we can talk our Balkan language. Every club has players and fans from former Yugoslavia – even when we played our European League Last 16 match in Reykjavik, the first words we heard in the arena were in our language,” Malus adds.

And as Göppingen beat Valur Reykjavik twice in the first knock-out stage, Jaka Malus and his side are only one round away from the EHF Finals Men in Flensburg on 27/28 May. In the quarter-finals, Göppingen will face another Balkan team, RK Nexe from the Croatian town of Nasice.

It will be a very special match for the playmaker, as he will not only duel with his ‘neighbours’, but with his former coach Branko Tamse.

“When I was a junior at Celje, Branko was the coach of the first team, and he took me over to the men, so he was a crucial person for my career. What I do in handball, I can only do because of him,” Malus praises Tamse, who coached him for five years in his home town Celje.

Then first Tamse left to become coach at Zagreb, then Malus left for Meshkov Brest.

“Now, in the quarter-finals of the European League it is the first time in my life that I will have a match against him. It will be strange, also for Blaz Blagotinsek, who was coached by Branko Tamse in Celje too. He knows us so well, so it will be interesting so see, how he prepares Nexe for us. But we also know him and his tactics. Definitely, we need to be on 100 per cent to beat a strong opponent like Nexe to fulfil our dream, a ticket to Flensburg,” thinks Malus.

Malus did not expect to reach this stage of the competition so early in his time in Germany.

“I did not start well, the team did not start well, it was really no perfect start for me, after all this moving around. But now, from game to game, we are playing much better,” he says.

After a weak start, Frisch Auf Göppingen went separate ways with their coach Hartmut Mayerhoffer and signed Markus Baur, former coach of Kadetten Schaffhausen, TBV Lemgo and the German U21 national team, and of course 2007 World Champion as German captain.

“He was a great player and is a great coach,” says Malus, who plays in the same centre back position as Baur did in his active career. “I gained confidence and play better and better.”

Göppingen finished second in their group, are the only team to have beaten Montpellier so far, and defeated defending champions SL Benfica twice. After finishing second in the group, Valur was not that high a hurdle for Malus and his teammates.

Now the expectations are huge at Göppingen.

“We have such great fans, thousands come to our home matches. And of course they are hungry for another trophy, as Göppingen were EHF Cup winners four times before.”

The last trophy dates back in 2017, when Göppingen hosted the EHF Cup finals and beat Berlin in the final, after also winning the trophy in 2011, 2012 and 2016.

“We really count on our fans in the first leg of the quarter-finals, we need this amazing audience backing us against Nexe. We really want to go all the way and then show that we deserve to go to Flensburg.

“And everybody knows that at a final tournament with two matches within 24 hours everything can happen. One win, and you are in the final, one more victory, and you are on the podium. There were always surprises at final tournaments. But we have to go step by step, and first have all our focus on Nexe,” Malus concludes.

Photos © Jürgen Weber Photodesign