7m - Toskic: “I'm going to stay in Velenje after my career is finished!“

Alem Toskic

European silver medal winner with the Serbian national team, an important piece of Gorenje Velenje’s rotation and an athlete who appeared for some of the strongest handball clubs in his illustrious career, Alem Toskic shared a few interesting details of his sporting and private life with the SEHA microphone. How did his professional career start, where did the handball journey take him, how does he find living in Velenje and what does he do in his free time - read all about it in a few upcoming passages.

This circle line player has been playing handball for a number of years, and his story started in primary school. ''I definitely chose handball because of my friends. At that moment, most of them had been going to handball practices, and that was the reason I decided to take up handball.''

During his career, Alem Toskic turned to be one of the best line players in the world, and he had started in the jersey of Priboj. Afterwards, he played for Partizan and Zagreb and then found himself in Celje. His professional sport journey continued in the Macedonian Vardar and now he is in his second season in the yellow jersey of Gorenje Velenje. ''In my rich career, I played for many teams and I happily look back at all of them.''

Alem Toskic is satisfied with the conditions and current accomplishments of team Gorenje led by Zeljko Babic. ''The atmosphere in our team is truly amazing, which goes to show when you look at the results. We maybe underperformed in two matches contrary to our expectations, but we simply have to be happy with what we have done so far."

Toskic spent 3 years in Skopje before Velenje, and even though he had left the club one season before Vardar became champions of Europe, he gladly remembers the time he spent in red and black colors. "Vardar really has a powerful team. From the first day I arrived to Macedonia, I knew I could find myself in a situation to fight for the Champions League title. I left a year before that happened, came to Gorenje and Vardar became the champions of Europe. Surely, I feel a bit sorry, but it is what it is. It's a great club, terrific team and it made me really happy.''

Alem Toskic spent a part of his career with the current Croatian champions PPD Zagreb. In the next round of the SEHA- Gazprom League on the 7th of November, Gorenje host his former team - PPD Zagreb. ''I spent some really nice years in Zagreb. It was a long time ago, but I happily look back on those times. Zagreb is a really good team, they have big ambitions each year, and they always strive for big results. Zagreb is a handball city, a handball place with a lot of fans and handball lovers, they are a serious team every year.''

Apart from club accomplishments, Toskic also had success appearing for the national team. Representing Serbia he won a silver medal at the EURO 2012 at home. That achievement is really special. ''I had some beautiful moments in my career, but the best one might be winning a silver medal at the European Championship in Serbia.''

He is often in touch with former teammates, Gorenje's matches in SEHA and Champions League are a good opportunity to talk face to face. ''I am in touch with a lot of players, we share some opinions, frequently meet up since we play SEHA and Champions League, we meet at a lot of matches. We also hang out before and after those matches. Handball is the thing we definitely talk about the most.'' 

He knows Slovenia very well from before, it did not take too long for Toskic to adjust to life in Velenje. ''My family lives in Slovenia, meaning I'm going to stay here after my career is finished. Velenje is a really beautiful town, a handball place where people know handball really well and are loyal to our club.''

With all the sporting achievements and good results, Alem Toskic still has family in the first place, family is something that fulfills him. ''Most of my free time I like spending with my family, my children. I have two kids so I cannot wait to catch a spare moment to spend more time with them.'' His sons definitely enjoy playing with his dad, but handball fans also enjoy in Alem's attractive plays on the court.