The Brightest Stars in Handball History: Talant Dujshebaev

GamingZion presents the players whose careers left deep traits in the development and the popularity of handball.

He is currently considered to be one of the greatest minds in contemporary handball but also one of the most controversial coaches of our time. His popularity in the handball world is incomparable with that of any of his colleagues. Handball portals make an industry of writing about him: “Dujshebaev suspended!”, “Talant Dujshebaev attacked opponent’s coach!”, “Talant started a fight with a player!” But Talant Dujshebaev is far more than that: a perfect materialization of the passion of handball!

From the Soviet Union to Spain

Born in 1968 in the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic he started his career in the Soviet Union playing for CSKA Moscow, from the junior till the senior categories. He soon established himself as a leader of his generation leading the Unified team to the golden medal on the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, as well as the Russian team in 1993 at the World Championship in Sweden, gambling news report. However, his career in 1992 made a considerable turn.

• Dujshebaev was two times IHF handball player of the year

• The Kirghiz talent is the main man behind the Ciudad Real era in European handball
• Polish Kielce forms a new page in Dujshebaev’s career

He signed a contract with TEKA Cantabria in 1992, which proved to be of great importance for the development of his future career as a player. In the five years he spent in TEKA he won two times the domestic ASOBAL league as well as the EHF Champions League in the season 1993/94 in an exciting final against ABC Braga. His amazing games in the TEKA shirt brought him in 1994 and 1996 the “IHF handball player of the year” award which is the most prestigious award in the handball world, launching his name high in the handball history.

And moreover, the magic he was performing on the central back position in TEKA, started to establish Talant Dujshebaev into a superstar. As a result of his immense efforts on the pitch in 1995 he received Spanish citizenship, as a great of Spanish handball. However he never won any title with the Spanish national team. In 2004 right after the Olympic Games in Athens he retired from the national side, according to online gambling sites in EU. One year later, Spain became handball world champion for the first time.

The Ciudad Real era

This seems to be enough to end up an article about the usual successful career of any player. But whoever thinks that this is the story of Talant Dujshebaev is terribly uninformed. After a four year stay in Germany, playing for the teams of TuS Nettelstedt (1997-1998) and GWD Minden (1998-2001), Dujshebaev returned to the Spanish Liga ASOBAL in the ambitious team of Ciudad Real, a team that marked an epoch in the history of handball during the period between 2001 and 2010.

He started there as a player but continued as a coach since 2005, becoming one of the most respected names between the handball strategies. He leaded the club towards three Champions Leagues titles in the seasons 2005/6, 2007/8 and 2008/9, marking an era of the reign of Ciudad Real in European Handball. The last two finals against THW Kiel, the biggest European competition in that time, will be remembered by handball fans as one of the most thrilling matches in handball history. In 2005 Talant Dujshebaev was also nominated by the IHF for the best player in the history of handball award along the names of Ivano Balic, Nikola Karabatic and Joachim Deckarm. The award later belonged to the Croatian magician.

The bankruptcy and the move to Poland

In 2011 BM Ciudad Real announced that they would be moving from the small town in Castilla de la Mancha to the capital of Spain, in order to attract more audience and bring the handball in Madrid, a city with a regular football and basketball programme at that period. This decision was widely criticized by many supporters of the club, especially when it was made public that the club will also change the name from BM Ciudad Real to BM Atletico de Madrid.

Dujshebaev defended at that time the decision of the president Domingo Diaz de Mera and decided to run the re-established club. This adventure lasted shortly. After two years the club went bankrupt provoking what is now commonly called “the death of ASOBAL”. With the bancruptcy of the club no opponents of F.C. Barcelona were left in the league, which is proved in the last two years as the Catalan club has not lost a match in the domestic league for more than 2 years. The disappearance of BM Atletico Madrid was followed by a massive exodus of Spanish players from the league, which found their new clubs mainly in Germany, Hungary and Macedonia. During his two years in Madrid, Dujshebaev reached one final in the EHF Champions League in 2011/12, won two Copa del Rey, and the IHF Super Globe in 2012.

He is now the first man of the polish champion Vive Tauron Kielce, considered according to online sportsbooks in EU, to be one of the favorites for reaching the Final Four in the EHF Champions League next season. A few months ago he also accepted the offer by the Magyar Kezilabda Szovetseg to be selector of the Hungarian national team until 2017.