Zika Bogdanovic BLOG about Final4 2026: “This is Disneyland. Enjoy it! We will deal with life from Monday…”
Written by Zika Bogdanovic
The season is over! The OFF season begins, and in it we will still hear the echo of the final weekends of June 2026. The champions are written into eternity, while the tragic heroes will lick their wounds under the summer sun and try again next year.
I will not tell you anything new about Cologne. For the 12th time under the roof of Lanxess Arena, it was special. But the Final4 is not only about matches; it is the feeling of being at home. As you walk through the city, there is not a single moment when you do not see something connected to handball — fans, legends, friends, appearing one after another. From every second restaurant you hear someone calling your name. It feels like a school trip. That kind of high-school-excursion energy — business and pleasure, passion. And we are at an age when we know that moments like these should be enjoyed as much as possible.
“Everyone is here.” We are enjoying it. And anyone who can afford it and loves this sport should treat themselves to a trip to Cologne. Once you come, it is hard not to come back.
I have really grown to love that scenery while crossing the Rhine, with the red-and-gold sky exploding above the Cathedral. And that walk across the river in a cortege, the atmosphere of Augustiner at Heumarkt, the kebab at Podolski’s place before closing time, that powder called Kölsch, those casual conversations, those handball stories late into the night that you cannot hear anywhere else, and that euphoria you feel in every person you run into.
To the people I talk to, I say:
“This is Disneyland. Enjoy it, because it lasts 48 hours. We will deal with life from Monday…”
And while we are coming down from the planet called handball, let us recap.
Domen Makuc. He arrived as a wonderkid and leaves as MVP. It took six years for the boy who entertained us with extraordinary moves as a youngster in Celje to receive confirmation that he belongs to the very top class. It took time, there were ups and downs, a serious knee injury, hints that he might be surplus to requirements, rumours sending him elsewhere, but in the end he survived and gave everything back. And while the previous titles belonged to others, this one is truly his — the perfect final touch before his move to Kiel.
And Lanxess Arena needs THW Kiel. Kiel is the biggest club in the world. You could see that in the years when an army dressed in black and white occupied the square outside and when that roar started coming from the stands. Nobody has that. It would be a powerful story to bring the “Zebras” back here, where the best of the best belong. Especially now, when they are starting again from the bottom, from zero.
People always slightly underestimate the power of Barcelona, probably because the German Bundesliga story is always so present — all those fantastic matches, players, drama, full arenas. And when you put everything on the scales, it is not exactly something you expect in 2026 that N’Guessan, that eternal pillar from the shadows, would have his best attacking season since putting on the Barça shirt; that Frade would be so dominant, able to receive the ball whenever he wanted; but when you know that behind them stand Mem, Fabregas, Nielsen, that robot Aleix Gómez who simply cannot miss, Blaz Janc can go past Lasse Andersson without even being touched in the duel — (we should introduce a rule that a goal counts double if a defender does not touch you when you beat him with a feint) — and then that brilliantly brave move by Djordje Cikusa, intercepting Gidsel’s pass and scoring for the title. And Ortega’s excellent coaching: in five seasons, he has won the Champions League three times. Only Talant had a better start with Ciudad Real, when he packed a hat-trick into four seasons.
In all of that, Barcelona had as many as four more scorers, while Krickau stubbornly insisted on playing 60 minutes with three back players against the only team that can run more than yours. There was also the fear of Nielsen, reflected in the shot selection of Füchse’s “green” wingers Freihöfer and Teigum, and the realization that Gidsel cannot simply take the ball and win the Champions League by himself for a second year in a row. Handball is not that kind of sport. We cannot simplify it that much.
From a media point of view, everything is good. Whether he wins it or whether we wait for him a little longer. The guy has broken every record there is, received the first personalized shoes in handball, and let the story stretch a little further — nothing will be missing, the celebration will only be bigger. Gidsel is a fantastic person. So natural, so full of respect for the entire handball ecosystem, where all of us should work together — from the court, to the stands, to the media — so that everyone is satisfied. Every time I see him, I feel like throwing away the microphone and hugging him out of pure respect.
That awareness, once again, was lacking among some people in Barcelona’s organization, so journalists once again, just like two years ago, waited for the players for an hour in the mixed zone, while many gave up and were left without statements from the champions after winning the trophy, as the players stayed on court celebrating and taking photos with the fans.
Lasse Andersson will move to the Danish second division, Milosavljev to Kielce, Nielsen to a mission of earning a square named after him in Veszprem. Sport is made of winning and not winning. Meetings and farewells.
And good stories. The one with the two Dejáns — teacher and student, Milosavljev and Perić — was the highlight of the weekend. I had been waiting for that frame with the two of them. I wanted us to tell that story unburdened by the final victory or defeat, because it is much bigger than that. “We won everything as a duo,” Banda Milosavljev said (they won Champions League with RK Vardar in 2019). And not only did they win everything, they also sent the best possible message in times when all authority is being demolished, when gratitude is disappearing, when people think less about what they leave behind, in the age of super-egoists and the life philosophy of “for myself, on myself, and under myself.”
The teacher still leads 2:1.
Bennet Wiegert’s Magdeburg will also continue to tell its own stories — the story of a man who has definitely changed handball, both in terms of what happens on the court and in terms of the coach’s role outside the 40×20. Magdeburg’s golden era continues, and next year we will expect nothing less than to see them checking in at the Radisson Blu again. And when you see Saugstrup with eyes full of tears after the semifinal, a player of that magnitude who has won everything in life, you know he will come back.
And then there is Aalborg’s “Barcelona complex” — three defeats at final tournaments, an attack to win the game, and then collapse. One day, that will be a strong documentary on TV2. For now, the footage is simply being prepared. As journalists would say, “there is meat there.”
As for us, Handball-Planet and Balkan-Handball.com, we gave everything we had. We recorded tons of videos, which best capture what happened in Cologne.
Stay well — and see you again next year.
