RK Zamet (Rukometni Klub Zamet) is a handball club from Rijeka, Croatia, formed in 1957. The club currently competes in the Croatian Premier Handball League and the Croatian Handball Cup. Although the club has not won any mayor trophies, it has produced four Olympic gold medalists: Valter Matošević, Alvaro Načinović, Valner Franković and Mirza Džomba. Four additional Olympic gold medalists played for the club, including Irfan Smajlagić, Vladimir Šujster, Zlatko Saračević and Božidar Jović, and Jakov Gojun, who has a bronze medal.
History
Origins The club was founded in September 1957, as RK Partizan Zamet by Prof. Stanko Jerger, Josip Šarić and Vittorio Drog. The players of the first RK Zamet team were Vilim Blažić, Tomislav Blažić, Nelo Stepčić, Vinko Radovčić, Anton Srdoč, Boris Kinkela, Josip Šarić and Stanko Jerger.
Zamet in Yugoslavia (1957–1991) During the first ten years, real results came in 1966 when Zamet won the Regional League of Primorje and Karlovac. During the 1960s Zamet played at the regional level. In 1969 Zamet's U-14 team won the club's first youth trophy at the Croatian U-14 Championship.
Until 1972, the club played in the Regional League of Primorje and Istra (Primorska regionalna liga), in which they won the championship title in 1966, 1970, and 1972, along with three runner-up titles. In 1972, they started competing in the Third Yugoslav League. In 1977, they were promoted to the Second Yugoslav League and, the following year, Zamet gained promotion to the First Yugoslav League. This decade saw players such as Marijan Seđak, Williams Černeka, Valter Marković, Željko Milanović, Darko Srdoč, Damir Čavlović, Boris Komucki, Renato Sošić and Jurica Lakić who left their marks in Zamet and handball in general. Unfortunately they were relegated after one season in the first league, finishing 14th.
For two seasons the club was renamed Partizan Rijeka from 1977 to 1979, when it was changed to Zamet.
In 1981, Zamet beat long time city rivals RK Kvarner and became Rijeka's top handball club. During the early 1980s, Zamet played in the second division. In 1982 the administration of MRK Zamet (men's team) and ŽRK Zamet (women's team) split up and went their separate ways.
The 1980s saw one of the best generation of players come through the club, such as Darko Dunato, Boris Dragičević, Marin Mišković, Tonči Peribonio, Valter Periša, Vlado Vukoje, Alvaro Načinović, Valner Franković, Mladen Prskalo, Valter Matošević and Drago Žiljak.
In 1987, they once again earned promotion to the first division, where they stayed until the breakup of Yugoslavian league in 1991. Their best position in the league was in 1987–88 when they were 8th.
Zamet in Croatia (1991–2014) Following the independence of Croatia, from 1992, Zamet competed in the top-tier league – Croatian First A League. Their first season in the newly founded league saw a prominent rise of power with them finishing second in the league and reaching the semi-finals of Croatian Cup.
The second place in the league earned Zamet a chance to qualify for their first European competition, in this case the European Champions Cup. Unfortunately Zamet lost in the first round to Pivovarna Laško Celje on aggregate due to one goal, winning the first match and losing the second.
With high expectations from the previous season, the 1992–93 season brought a big shock. Zamet finished 8th with coach Žiljak being replaced mid-season with Darko Dunato, who had retired as a player the previous season. Zamet were also eliminated from the Croatian Cup by Coning Medveščak Zagreb. The next season Žiljak returned as head coach but brought the same results as the season before. Zamet finished 8th.
In the 1994–95 season Zamet were relegated to the First B League, finishing 9th in the league with newly appointed coach Ivan Munitić. Zamet bounced back the next season, finishing first and gaining swift promotion back to the First A League. In this season a new generation of players emerged such as Mirza Džomba, Nikola Blažičko, Renato Sulić, Milan Uzelac, and Igor Saršon. The 1996–97 season saw Zamet in 5th place, a disappointing result due to the fact that they had players such as Valter Matošević and Irfan Smajlagić.
From 1997 to 2000 Zamet changed their name to Zamet Autotrans, due to a sponsorship deal. During this period, Zamet regularly finished near the top of the table. Ivan Munitić also took Zamet to the quarter-final of EHF City Cup and Round 16 of the EHF Cup Winners' Cup.
In 2000, Zamet signed a new sponsorship deal with Teri-Crotek, changing the club's name to Zamet Crotek for four years. They made it to the Croatian Handball Cup final, where they finished as runners-up in 2000 and 2001. With Damir Čavlović as head coach Zamet played Europe, each season making some of the best results the club saw.
After a successful period, poor results ensued, and during the late 2000s the club often finished in the middle or bottom half of the table. The club was also in financial trouble and often couldn't pay the players their salaries.
In 2011–12 Zamet got to the finals of the Croatian Cup where they lost to Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb. That same season through league results they qualified for the EHF Cup for the first time in ten years. They lost to HK ASA Meso Lovoseice in their first round on aggregate 59–56.
Recent years (2014–present) On 23 April 2014 Vedran Devčić was appointed as the new president of Zamet. Vedran Babić was appointed as sports director; Damir Balenović, Marinko Blečić, Ivan Krešić, Miljenko Mrakovčić, Igor Načinović, Vjekoslav Sardelić, and Goran Stašek were appointed as board members; and Marin Mišković stayed on as head coach. Zamet had ended their 2013–14 season in 6th place.
Zamet played their 2014–15 season by finishing in 5th place 6 points down from entering the Championship play-offs. During the mid-table play-offs they secured their 7th place. Lovro Jotić was the club's top goal scorer with 147 goals.
On 24 May 2015 it was announced that Mateo Hrvatin would be returning to the club.
Over the summer president Devčić gave out statements that most of the club's debts had been paid, starting the season of on a positive note. Zamet started their season with a six-game winning streak.
On 3 October the club opened up the RK Zamet Hall of Fame, putting up the national team jerseys of Alvaro Načinović, Valter Matošević, Mirza Džomba, Renato Sulić, Nikola Blažičko and Mateo Hrvatin, who were introduced into the Hall of Fame.
Zamet finished their regular season in third place, qualifying for the Championship play-offs for the first time in ten years. Zamet finished in fourth place in the Championship play-offs, qualifying for the EHF Cup qualifiers.
During the summer of 2016 Zamet lost key players Dario Černeka, Dino Slavić, Luka Kovačević, Petar Jelušić and Bojan Lončarić, beginning their season fairly weaker. On 19 May it was announced that Marin Kružić would be returning to Zamet, and they also signed newcomer Tin Lučin.
Zamet started their 2016–17 season with a win against French team Créteil in their first EHF Cup qualifier. The second match was played in Dvorana Zamet, where Zamet, as media outlets said, had "the sweetest loss in history", as they lost 24:27. However, due to the goals scored in the first match, they passed to the next round on aggregate (56:56). Zamet's domestic season didn't start that well, losing their first match to rivals RK Poreč, conceding a draw in their second to RK Dubrava and losing their third to RK Metalac. The first two European matches took a toll on the team. They lost the first match of the second qualifiers to CSM București in București. They equalized in the second match at home and passed through to the third and final stage of the EHF Cup qualification stage. It was revealed on 17 October that Zamet would play their last qualifier against MT Melsungen.
Two days later, on the 19th, Zamet faced Ribola Kaštela at home and entered their first win in the Premier League with a score of 35:28. Their next match was on 22 October where they played against RK Rudar away in Rude, where they won a tight match (25:28).
Venue
Since the foundation of the club matches were played on the playground Zamet when field handball was played. From 1973 until 2009, they played in Dvorana Mladosti, located in the suburb of Trsat.
As of 2009 the club has been playing in Centar Zamet. The capacity of the venue is 2,350 spectators.
Seasons
Since the beginning of Croatian handball in 1992 Zamet has competed at the highest level in the First A League, later renamed First League and now Premier League. They spent one season in the First B League in 1995–96 after being relegated.
SeasonTierDivisionPos.1991–921 First A League 2nd1992–931 First A League 6th1993–941 First A League8th1994–951 First A League9th1995–962 First B League1st1996–971 First A League5th1997–981 First A League3rd1998–991 First A League3rd1999–001 First A League7th2000–011 First A League4th2001–021 First League4th2002–031 First League5th2003–041 First League4thSeasonTierDivisionPos.2004–051 First League14th2005–061 First League6th2006–071 First League10th2007–081 First League8th2008–091 Premier League14th2009–101 Premier League12th2010–111 Premier League9th2011–121 Premier League7th2012–131 Premier League7th2013–141 Premier League8th2014–151 Premier League7th2015–161 Premier League4th2016–171 Premier League9thSeasonTierDivisionPos. 2017–181 Premier League7th 2018–191 Premier League8th 2019–201 Premier LeagueN/A1 2020–211 Premier League8th 2021–221 Premier League10th 2022–231 Premier League16th 2023–242 1. HRL Jug1st 2024–251 Premier League10th
1 The season was voided due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Team
Current squad Squad for the 2017–18 season
Goalkeeper 1 Wang Quan 12 Fran Lučin 16 Marin Sorić
Wingers RW 5 Martin Mozetić 6 Jakov Mozetić LW 2 Damir Vučko 4 Dario Jeličić 20 Dujam Dunato
Line players 13 Veron Načinović 19 Ivan Majić
Back players LB 7 Luka Grgurević 14 Zhao Chen
CB 9 Nikola Njegovan 17 Antun Dunato 22 Marko Mrakovčić 23 Matija Golik
RB 11 Marin Kružić 15 Matija Starčević
Technical staff
President: Vedran Devčić Sports director: Vedran Babić Head Coach: Drago Žiljak Assistant Coach: Marin Mišković Fitness Coach: Emil Baltić Fitness Coach: Dragan Marijanović Team Manager : Boris Konjuh
Youth academy Director: Damir Bogdanović Coaching staff: Saša Sardelić, Matko Novaković, Nikola Mrđen & Ivan Marenčić First-team liaison officer: Nikola Mrđen Head of goalkeeping: Valter Matošević Goalkeeper coach: Igor Saršon U-19 coach: Marin Mišković U-16 coach: Alen Kurbanović U-14 coach: Mateo Hrvatin U-10 coach: Milan Uzelac Source: SportCom.hr
Notable former players
Stanko Jerger Simeon Kosanović Željko Kosanović Željko Tomac Ivan Munitić Vlado Vukoje Roberto Sošić Jurica Lakić Darko Srdoč Marijan Seđak Mladenko Mišković Željko Gašperov Boris Dragičević Boris Komucki Drago Žiljak Valter Periša Darko Dunato Željko Milanović Williams Černeka Valter Marković Damir Čavlović Ivica Rimanić Marin Mišković Tonči Peribonio Alvaro Načinović Valter Matošević Mladen Prskalo Darko Franović Valner Franković Irfan Smajlagić Zlatko Saračević Petar Misovski Dean Ožbolt Vladimir Šujster Robert Savković Ivan Vukas Mirza Džomba Renato Sulić Nikola Blažičko Milan Uzelac Edin Bašić Marko Bagarić Jakov Gojun Mateo Hrvatin Dario Černeka Ivan Pešić Ivan Stevanović Krešimir Kozina
Coaches
Josip Šarić (Sep 1957 – Jun 1964) Tomislav Mohorić☨ (Jul 1964 – Aug 1965) Mladenko Mišković (Aug 1965 – Apr 1966) Simeon Kosanović (Apr 1966 – Sep 1968) Stanko Jerger (Sep 1969 – May 1970) Mladenko Mišković☨ (May 1970 – Jun 1979) Vjekoslav Sardelić (Jun 1979 – Mar 1980) Ivica Rimanić (Mar 1980 – Jan 1981) Jurica Lakić☨ (Feb 1981 – Jun 1981) Željko Tomac (Jun 1981 – Apr 1986) Marijan Seđak & Milan Blagovčanin (Apr 1986 – Aug 1987)