Former heroes on show as usual when Kielce meet Veszprém in MOTW

16 EHF EURO participants – eight each from both sides – will meet in the first Match of the Week (MOTW) in 2026, when Industria Kielce host One Veszprém HC on Thursday 19 February at 18:45 CET. The match is celebrating an anniversary, as this will be the 20th duel between the two powerhouses in EHF club competitions.

Veszprém won the reverse fixture on home soil, 35:33, in October, putting the head-to-head stats even more clearly in favour of the Hungarian record champions, who have amassed 12 wins, two draws and six defeats. Veszprém still have mathematical chances to book a direct ticket to the quarter-final, as they are currently in third place, five points below Aalborg Håndbold, occupying second. Kielce are fifth in group A with nine points on their tally.

The excitement and thrill of the Industria Kielce vs One Veszprém HC match-up is not only related to the fierce previous battles, including the legendary 2016 EHF Champions League final, but also due to the fact that many big stars have played for both clubs.

The latest of those transfers between the sides is Frenchman Nedim Remili. After six years at Paris Saint-Germain, the centre back — European and Olympic champion, MVP of the Men's EHF EURO 2024 — moved to Kielce in 2022. But only six months later, Remili swapped clubs and transferred to Veszprém, and has recently extended his contract until 2029. With 62 goals, Remili is currently the top Veszprém scorer in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League. Due to an injury, he missed the EHF EURO 2026.

When looking at the longest stint at the two clubs in total, a Croatian left wing tops the ranking: Manuel Štrlek spent six years at Kielce (2012-2018), including winning the EHF Champions League trophy in 2016, followed by five years at Veszprém (2018-2023). He won the Polish league and Polish cup each six times and the Hungarian league twice. After leaving Veszprém in November 2023, Štrlek moved to RK Nexe, then became German champion and EHF Champions League finalist with Füchse Berlin in the 2024/25 season, and now is back at Nexe in his homeland.

His compatriot Luka Cindrić has not won the EHF Champions League once, but three times: in 2019 with HC Vardar, in 2021 and 2022 with Barça. Between winning those trophies, centre back Cindrić played the 2018/19 season for Kielce, then moved from Barça to his former coach Xavi Pascual to Dinamo Bucuresti, before both arrived at Veszprém in 2024. At the EHF EURO 2026, Cindrić won the bronze medal, together with his Veszprém teammate Ivan Martinović.  

Jorge Maqueda is another handball globetrotter. The Spanish right back started his career at Barça, followed by another Spanish club (BM Aragon), before he moved to HBC Nantes for the first time (2013-2015). His next stop was HC Vardar, where he won the EHF Champions League in 2017, before he moved to Hungary — first Szeged (2018-2020), then Veszprém (2022-2022). After another two years at Nantes, he moved to Kielce in 2024, where the 38-year-old left-hander is a cornerstone of the defence.

Straight from Kielce to Veszprém was the way of the Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Cupara: Arriving from Ademar Leon in 2018, he joined the Polish side for one season (2018/19), before he transferred to Veszprém, where he played for four years until 2023. Since then, he has kept goal at Xavi Pascual’s former club Dinamo Bucuresti.

Even one Polish player was part of the Veszprém squad, but only for one year: Pawel Paczkowski arrived at Kielce at the age of 22, then went on loan first to Motor Zaporozhye, then to Veszprém in the 2019/20 season and then onto Meshkov Brest. In 2022, Paczkowski returned to Kielce where he stayed for another two years before heading to Japan, where he now plays for Brave Kings Kariya.

Photos © www.pekaroland.hu, tomaszfafara.pl