Jovanka Radicevic: “I loved every game, I enjoyed every game”

Only 16 months before, Joka had said farewell to the Montenegrin national team after her 193th match, finally winning the EHF EURO bronze medal, beating France in Ljubljana. Now the duel with Ludwigsburg on Sunday was the final international match for the prolific 38-year-old right wing, who imprinted women’s handball in the last 25 years. The 26:23 win was not enough for Radicevic and Krim to proceed to the quarter-finals after the 21:31 defeat in the reverse fixture last week. The international season is over for the Slovenian record champions – and it was the last one for the Montenegrin legend.

By netting once against Ludwigsburg, Radicevic’s overall career score are 1181 Champions League goals, she is right behind Cristina Neagu (CSM/1221 goals by now), who also will end her career after this season. Besides Neagu, Joka’s former teammate Andrea Lekic (FTC) and former Györ star Anita Görbicz, Radicevic is one of four players of the “club of 1000” in the Champions League. Her career high in one season was 97, when she secured the Champions League top scorer crown in 2019/20.

The season 2024/25 ended with 40 goals of Radicevic on Sunday. “It's hard to say farewell. But I'm really grateful for everything that handball gave me. I gave a lot to handball and I received a lot from it. I met amazing people. It will stay for all my life. Of course, I am disappointed right now that we did not make it to the quarter-finals, but this is life. It is sport. But life continues. We still have some matches in the Slovenian league,” Radicevic said, when she left the EHF Champions League court for the last time.

But at the same time of being close to tears, the smile returned to Joka’s face: “I think for me it's enough. But I'm really happy for everything that I did in my career, and the way how I did. I really want to say thank you to all the fans in every country who supported me all these years. 26 years in handball mean a lot. I loved every game, I enjoyed every game. It was hard to play this final game, but I should be proud of everything that I did.”

But how can EHF Champions League Women continue without Jovanka Radicevic? Joka smiles again: “I don't know. Everybody asks me that, but I will be the biggest supporter and fan of handball in future. I know that I will stay in handball, but I really want to rest my head for one year and then I will decide what I will do.”

Born in 1986 in Vukovci close to Montenegrin capital Podgorica, handball was part of Joka’s life right from the birth. Her mother was a Yugoslav national team player, at the time when famous Vinko Kandija was national team coach. “Handball was love at first sight. From the very first training session, I knew it was the sport that was right for me and that I wanted to do”, Radicevic looks back.

She started her long-lasting professional career at Buducnost at the age of 18, when she had already been part of the women’s national team. In 2006 and 2010, Radicevic won her first international trophies, becoming champion in the EHF Cup Winners’ Cup. In 2011, she moved to Györ – and right in her first season made it to her first Champions League finals – losing on aggregate by one goal against her former club from Podgorica.

One year later, Radicevic was on the winners’ podium, beating Larvik in her last match in the Györ jersey and in the last final of the “old” version, before the EHF FINAL4 tournaments were implemented. No one knew that Radicevic’s first appearance on the winners’ podium had also been her last one.

In five seasons with Vardar Skopje, she made it five times to the EHF FINAL4 in Budapest, including two finals in 2017 and 2018 – but Radicevic lost both against her former club Györ. For one year, in the 2018/19 season, she moved to CSM Bucuresti, then returned to Buducnost for two years, before she moved to Turkish side Kastamonu – and finally arrived in Ljubljana in 2022. From the first to the last year of her professional career, Radicevic was competing in the EHF Champions League. She was even part of the EHF Champions League All-star Team four times - 2013/14, 2015/16, 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Besides, she was nominated for the EHF EURO All-star Team three times, including in 2012, when Montenegro won the gold medal (and Radicevic scored a total of 40 goals) after two overtimes beating Norway to take revenge for the defeat in the Olympic final in London four months ago, and in 2022, when she was team captain, winning bronze. Radicevic was also part of the All-star Teams at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships. Another magic moment was at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2021, when she was Montenegro’s flag bearer in her third Olympic appearance.

In Montenegro, Radicevic is a legend thanks to her emotional way of play, her power and her passion for handball. On 9 November 2022, 4000 fans gave her standing ovations in Moraca Arena in Podgorica in the final match of the preliminary round of the EHF EURO, and were chanting for Jovanka Radicevic in her last match with the national team on home soil. They hold a huge banner on top of the arena: “Love until the last breath, Jovanka Orleanka” (Joan of Arc).

Radicevic could not stop her tears on that emotional night, when she received two framed shirts – one with her number 4 and one with a 1000, for more than 1000 goals for the national team. “Every award, every recognition and every medal is special in its own way, but I will never forget this moment in Moraca. Winning the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games also holds a special place in my memory – besides, to be the runners-up in the all-time top scorer list of the EHF Champions League is something incredible”, she says: “And this bronze medal in my last national team match still shines like gold for me.”

Last summer, Radicevic announced to finish her career at the end of the 2024/25 season.” I take every decision carefully, both in life and in sports. This decision came from the heart. I am more than proud of everything I have achieved in my 26 years of playing handball. When I look back through all the challenges since I was a little girl, I see a path that was hard, but fulfilling. At the end, it was all worth it,” says Radicevic.

Month by month, week by week, the number of matches were ticking down for her: “I really was counting down the number of matches still ahead. I had prepared my head that this will be the last season for me. But everybody asked me: Why don't you play as long as you can? But I really think that it's most important that every athlete knows when it's enough. I wanted to finish, when fans and people remember me in a great shape, not to wait that I cannot play anymore.”

Handball changed rapidly in those years of Radicevic’s career – and so she changed: “You can't compare yourself at the beginning of your career to who you are now. Every player faces obstacles, but I do believe you mature with every game you play, with every tournament. From my first day to my last, my desire for training, competition, and to be the best have been my main driving forces. Besides some tactical and technical things that changed from year to year, I progressed the most in mental strength,” she said in the EHF series “Handball through my eyes”.

In future, Radicevic will continue spreading all her knowledge, experience and passion to young players: “For sure, I will have my camp for girls from 12 to 18 years. I will continue to work with kids every summer in my country. I will do this and I will also have a lot of other opportunities, but really I don't want to stay in professional handball right now. I need one year of rest.”

And still, there is a completely different job opportunity in Joka’s head: to open a beauty salon. “Beauty things are interesting for me. We are women, we take care on this, we want to look nice. It's still true, because I really like this kind of things.”

Main image © 2025 Uros Hocevar / kolektiff