Iztok Puc was a
Slovenian handball player who was one of the world's top players of the 1980s and 1990s.
[4] During his career he has played professionally for
RK Borac,
RK Zagreb,
RK Celje and
RD Prule 67 and won a total of 18 domestic trophies. He was also a member of the
RK Zagreb squad which won the elite
EHF Champions League in 1992 and 1993. He is the only handball player who represented three different countries at the
Summer Olympics (
Yugoslavia,
Croatia and
Slovenia),
[5][6][7]
winning bronze with Yugoslavia in 1988 and gold with Croatia in 1996.
In 2009, he was named the best overall player in the history of
Slovenian handball.
[8]
After his death an award named in his honour was introduced and is
awarded annually to the most promising young handball players in
Slovenia and Croatia, given alternately one year to Slovenian and
another year to Croatian player.
[9][10]
(14 September 1966 – 20 October 2011)
Early life
Puc was born in
Slovenj Gradec,
SR Slovenia,
SFR Yugoslavia on 14 September 1966. During his youth he lived in
Šoštanj with his mother and without his father, whom he met for the first time at the age of 25.
[11] In elementary school a gym teacher named
Miro Požun, who was aware of the situation at Puc's home, took young Puc under his wing and became his mentor.
[11]
Požun, who eventually became one of the best coaches in history of
Slovenian handball, was the first who noticed the enormous talent that
Puc had and eventually introduced him to the local handball club
RK Šoštanj, which he also coached.
[11] There Puc became the most promising young player of Yugoslav handball.
[12]
Club career
Puc was first noticed by
RK Borac in 1983 when their goalkeeper, Yugoslav international
Zlatan Arnautović, spotted him and reported his findings to the club officials.
[12]
He was then tracked by the club and their scouting service and a few
years later the young promising player was given an offer to join their
club.
Abas Arslanagić,
the coach of Borac, which was one of the top Yugoslav clubs at the
time, wanted the young teenager to join his team immediately, however,
Puc was persuaded by Miro Požun to finish high school first and complete
at least some form of education.
[11]
Puc listened to his mentor, finished high school one year later and
finally joined Borac in 1985 where he signed his first professional
contract.
[11] Upon his arrival in
Banja Luka, he immediately became the best player of the team and the best goalscorer of the entire league.
[13]
Although he has never won any major domestic honours with Borac, he is
nevertheless considered as one of the best players in history of the
club.
[12]
He later played for
RK Zagreb from Croatia, and
RK Celje and
RD Prule 67 from Slovenia.
[14] During his career he won a total of 18 domestic trophies and was a member of the Zagreb squad which won the elite
EHF Champions League
in 1992 and 1993. He is most remembered for the game-winning goal in
the 1993 Champions League final where he scored in the final seconds of
the game.
[14] He has also won three
Croatian league and three
Croatian cup titles. His longest spell was with Celje where he played for five years during which time he won five
Slovenian league and five
Slovenian cup titles and played in the EHF Champions League semi-final three times in a row.
[14] Miro Požun was the head coach of Celje during the 1994–95 season with whom Puc won his first Slovenian league and cup title.
[15] He made a total of 136 appearances for Celje, scoring 630 goals in the process.
[14]
Puc last played for Prule 67 where he won both domestic titles, league
and cup, in the 2001–02 season and appeared in another Champions league
semi-final one year later.
[14]
International career
His first taste of international success came at the
1987 Junior World Championship when Yugoslavia won gold, and Puc was noticed as the most prominent player of the winning team.
[3] One year later he won a bronze medal with the
Yugoslav senior team at the
1988 Summer Olympics in
Seoul. He played his last game for Yugoslavia at the
1990 World Championship where his team finished fourth.
[16] With 97 appearances, he is the third most capped Slovenian player in history of the Yugoslav national team.
[17]
Following his move to RK Zagreb in 1990 and the
breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Puc became a Croatian citizen and played for the
Croatian team with whom he won gold medal at the
1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta. He won two other medals in major tournaments with Croatia, a bronze medal at the
1994 European Championship and a silver medal at the
1995 World Championship.
[4]
In the late 1990s he switched his national side allegiance in favour
of Slovenia, the country of his birth. He then played for the
Slovenian team at the
2000 Summer Olympics in
Sydney, where the team finished eighth. Slovenia qualified for the Sydney tournament after finishing fifth at the
2000 European Championship.
[18] The play-off match fifth place was played in
Zagreb
against host nation Croatia, Puc's former team. Puc was one of the best
players of the game and Slovenia won the match 25–24, thus securing the
last available spot for the 2000 Olympics.
[18] He played 34 games for Slovenia, during which he scored 120 goals.
[14]
Retirement
After his retirement at Prule 67 he assumed the role of sports director at the club.
[14] Soon afterwards he moved to
Florida,
USA together with his wife Jasenka, who is the daughter of the Croatian handball player and
1972 Olympic gold medalist
Hrvoje Horvat,
[2]
in support of their son's Borut tennis career. He and his wife sold all
of their family possessions and enrolled their son to the world famous
Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.
[19] At the time of his father's death, Borut Puc was ranked 502nd on the
ATP list
[20] with
Goran Ivanišević as his tennis coach.
[2]
Similar to his father, he also represented both Slovenia and Croatia.
He started his career representing Slovenia and did so until the late
2000s (decade) when he changed his allegiance to Croatia.
[2]
Illness and death
In early 2011, Puc was diagnosed with
lung cancer that spread to his liver and bones,
[5] and succumbed to the disease on 20 October 2011 in a
San Diego hospital,
[2] just a few days before the Champions League game between Zagreb and
Barcelona, with the revenue of the match intended to be donated to help cover the costs for his treatment.
[21] On 5 November 2011, a
Handball Day was held in
Celje,
Slovenia, where two matches were played. In the first one, the 2000
Olympics Slovenian squad beat the Croatian squad composed of players who
won the 1996 Olympic gold medal 29-25, while in the second match the
regular squad of Slovenia beat the squad of
RK Celje
35-32. This event was organized prior to Puc's death and matches would
have been played even if he would still had been alive, as the main
purpose was to gather donations for Puc and his family as financial aid
for his treatment. Organizers collected around 17,000 euros and the
revenue was bestowed on Puc's family.
[9]
At the end of the match, which was seen by 4,000 spectators, the arena
was completely dimmed. He is survived by his wife Jasenka and son Borut,
a tennis player who resides in Florida, where the family moved to in
2005.
[22]
Legacy
"Iztok Puc is possibly the best left back ever to play handball. A
player with a great shot, overview on the field,... he had it all."
Despite being known for his relaxed approach to training,
[11][24][25] Puc was described as a fiercely competitive and mentally tough player.
[11][26] At the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the
Handball Federation of Slovenia in 2009, Puc was named the best left back and the best overall player in the history of Slovenian handball.
[7][8] Three days after his death, his former club
RK Zagreb hosted Barcelona in a EHF Champions League match at
Arena Zagreb.
A clip of his match-winning goal for Zagreb in the 1993 EHF Champions
League final was shown and 15,000 people joined in a minute-long
standing ovation in memory of Iztok Puc.
[27] In 2011 the
Slovenian Olympic Committee together with the
Croatian Olympic Committee and in collaboration with the Handball Federation of Slovenia and
Croatian Handball Federation, introduced a joint award named in honour of Puc (
Iztok Puc Award) that is awarded annually to the most promising U–18 handball player.
[10]
The award is alternating between the two nations every year and is
given alternately one year to Slovenian and another year to Croatian
player.
[9]
To see more of who died in 2011
click here
