Goran Stojanović


Goran Stojanović is a Montenegrin-Qatari handball player for the Al Rayyan and the Qatar.

Club career

After starting out at his hometown club Mornar Bar, Stojanović played for Crvena zvezda, Lovćen, Grasshoppers, VfL Pfullingen, VfL Gummersbach, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and El Jaish and Al Rayyan.

International career

At international level, Stojanović represented Montenegro at the 2008 European Championship in the nation's debut appearance in major tournaments. He later switched his allegiance to Qatar, winning the gold medal at the 2014 Asian Championship. Stojanović was a member of the team that finished as runners-up at the 2015 World Championship, the first World Championship medal for both Qatar and for any Asian team. The result was however controversial due to the many naturalized players of Qatar, of which Stojanović was one of them. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, only four of the 17 players in the squad were native to Qatar. The practice was criticised by Austrian goalkeeper after his team's loss to Qatar in the round of 16, saying "It like playing against a world selection team" and "I think it is not the sense of a world championship." Furthermore there were claims of favourable refereering for the hosts. After the final whistle of their semifinal against Poland, the Polish players showed their discontent by ironically applauding the three referees.
He subsequently helped Qatar win the 2016 Asian Championship and later participated at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Stojanović also won two gold medals at the Asian Games.

Honours

;Lovćen
;VfL Gummersbach
;Rhein-Neckar Löwen
;El Jaish