Short Danish adventure for Losert
Venio Losert´s stay with Danish EHF Cup participants KIF Kolding became considerably shorter than expected. Only six months after having joined the club on a three year contract from Spanish Reale Ademar León is the 36 year old Croatian national team goalkeeper moving on, as he has signed an 18 month contract with Polish champions Vive Targi Kielce.
The expectations were high in June this year, when Kolding announced Venio Losert, double Olympic gold medallist among other triumphs, as the club´s new first-choice keeper.
Two and a half month later, however, an even more prominent shot-stopper joined club, as former Danish national team goalkeeper Kasper Hvidt signed on for Kolding.
Since then, Losert has not got much time on the court in matches, and this is the background for the transfer.
According to an official statement from Kolding, no less than five European top clubs showed interest in signing Losert, but at the end Kielce got the experienced goalkeeper who is seen as replacement to the injured Danish keeper Marcus Cleverly.
The transfer has given Kolding the need for a back-up to Kasper Hvidt in goal. The club already has 26 year old Danish goalkeeper Søren Westphal on a three year contract, but after Hvidt´s arrival, Westphal was loaned out to Nordsjælland Håndbold, where he came from when signing on for Kolding.
The loan deal expires at New Year, so until then one of Kolding´s own young goalkeepers Mikkel Nielsen will be substitute for Kasper Hvidt. This also includes the two upcoming qualifiers for the Group Phase of the EHF Cup against Permskie Medvedi.
“I would have liked to go on working with Venio Losert, but there has been no doubt that Kasper Hvidt is our first-choice goalkeeper, and as Losert got a fine opportunity to get on with his career elsewhere, I want to congratulate him on that”, KIF Kolding´s head coach Peter Bredsdorff-Larsen told ehfCL.com.
“Now I am looking forward to getting Westphal back, and he will fall into our team easily, as he has taken part in several training sessions with us while he has been loaned out to Nordsjælland. In the meantime I hope that Kasper Hvidt does not get injured, as it would be to put too much pressure on Mikkel, if for instance he would have to play the games against Perm," Peter Bredsdorff-Larsen added.
On Monday Losert had the first training session with his new team. "I have put a lot of hope in my arrival in Kielce. I would like to achieve good results with my new team and I dream about FINAL4 participation. I wish my transfer to Kielce would become the most successful step in my sporting career," Losert said for vivetargi.pl.
TEXT:
Peter Bruun / br