Nebojsa Simić: Back on court, out for his first title

By then, he was the best goalkeeper in the EHF European League Men and was a crucial factor in Melsungen’s route to the EHF Finals in Hamburg. Without Simić, they finished fourth, only beaten by domestic rivals — unluckily losing the semi-final against SG Flensburg-Handewitt and then the 3/4 placement match against THW Kiel. 

Now, Melsungen are back at the Winamax EHF Finals 2026 in the Barclays Arena in Hamburg. Simić made his comeback in February, once again helping his side to proceed.

“We are so happy to return to this great event, with this incredible atmosphere. We had an extremely tough season with many ups and downs, but now we are here to be better than last year,” says Simić, who joined MT Melsungen nine years ago from Swedish side IFK Kristianstad.

“And now I am back. It was really bitter to miss the crucial part of the last season. We were chasing Berlin and Magdeburg in the league, played the EHF Finals. Then, I almost missed the whole current season. But you cannot choose your injury.

“I really feel well right now, still having a lot of physio treatment. I also know that this knee will never be as before.”

In their EHF European League 2025/26 campaign, MT Melsungen finished their group on top, but then lost three of four main round matches. After making it to the semi-finals one year ago, the two-time German cup finalists seemed to be out already in the play-offs after a 29:35 defeat in the first leg at Danish side Fredericia Håndboldklub.

“We were really surprised about their strong performance, mainly from their goalkeepers. We were shocked when we were 10 goals behind, but then we managed to reduce the gap in the last 15 minutes — and somehow, we knew that we can turn it around at home,” says Simić. “We had the greater will in the reverse fixture and deserved to proceed.”

In the end, it was a clear 35:26 win at home for Melsungen, giving them a 64:61 aggregate victory.

In the quarter-finals, Simić & co. laid the base again on home ground, but the goalkeeper acknowledges: “We could have beaten FC Porto in a much clearer way than we did, we would have deserved to win by six, seven goals.”

After 60 minutes, the score was 28:23 in favour of the German side, and Simić was MT’s hero with 14 saves.

“We knew that this was a tricky result, as Porto still had the chance to make it to Hamburg”, he says.

After 33 minutes, Porto were virtually participants in the Winamax EHF Finals 2026 for the first time, leading 15:9. With his one and only goal in 60 minutes, Rubén Marchán finally prevented Melsungen from a penalty shoot-out, netting Melsungen’s 19th goal in their 19:23 loss, and securing the German club their second straight ticket to Hamburg.

“You cannot win a match when you only score 19 goals, but this is handball, sometimes you need some luck. This match truly felt much, much closer than the play-offs against Fredericia,” says Simić.

Melsungen rejoin the same three opponents in Hamburg as in 2025, with the same semi-final draws.

On Saturday 30 May Montpellier Handball will play THW Kiel, then defending champions SG Flensburg-Handewitt will again face Melsungen. 

“I would have like to face Flensburg in the final on Sunday, not Saturday, because they play so fast and put so much pressure on you. Facing them means you lose a lot of power for the final day. I would rather have preferred to face Kiel in the semi, I really like to play against them and playing Kiel is always fun,” says Simić.

For him, it is no surprise that the same quartet as in 2025 fight for the trophy again.

“Those are the four best teams of the competition — three from the world’s best league, one from the second-best league. Having five of eight teams being part of the final tournaments of EHF Champions League and EHF European League underlines the dominance of the German Bundesliga,” believes Simić.

And while the remaining trio were all EHF Champions League winners at least once and took many trophies in different domestic and European competition, Nebojsa Simić hopes that the time for Melsungen will come on 31 May.

“I am playing here since nine years, and I never won any title with Melsungen. I want to come to our club office to see a winner’s trophy in the cabinet, no more silver or other medals.”

Photos © Alibek Kaesler; Filipe Oliveira Photos