A book for goalkeepers by a goalkeeper

Abas Arslanagić has reached heights in handball that many players simply dream of.

Born in 1944 in the Bosnian town of Derventa, he was not even 18 when he celebrated his debut in the first Yugoslavian handball league as the goalkeeper of Belgrade side RK Partizan.

Eight years later he had made it to the national team, won bronze at the World Championship 1970 and reached one of the peaks in any athlete's career when he won gold with Yugoslavia at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games.

After 125 internationals he retired at the age of 33 and turned to coaching. As the head coach of Yugoslavia he won, among other achievements, the World Championship 1986 and bronze at the 1988 Olympic Games.

In 2009 and 2010 he was still responsible for the goalkeeper's coaching in the Bosnian national team – and until 2013 he worked with handball goalkeepers in Qatar.

However, already while being a player he pursued an academic career which saw him graduating from the Sarajevo Faculty of Physical Education – and recently he published his third book, entitled “Handball goalkeeper – the key performance link“.

"This is my third book dealing with, in my opinion, the most important link in the chain of handball performance – the handball goalkeeper, his/her personality, physical conditioning. Goalkeeping technique and tactics, and other relevant accompanying segments of his/her play," Arslaganić writes .

On almost 200 pages the author delves into the depths of handball goalkeeping, starting with defining the goalkeeper's role and continuing with a variety of physical exercises, technique and style analyses and situation-specific tips.

“Every beginner and young goalkeeper must read this book,” says FC Barcelona goalkeeper Danijel Saric, who won silver with Qatar at the World Championship 2015.

“Handball goalkeeper – the key performance link“ can be ordered via the author's website: http://arslanagic.com/