HC Alkaloid will take part in the 51^st Struga Handball Tournament, which will be held from August 16 to August 19. This will be the second time that HC Alkaloid participates in the country’s oldest tournament.

Our team, together with the teams of AEK Athens and HC Dinamo Panchevo, will compete in group A.

HC Alkaloid will play its first match on August 16 against the team of HC Dinamo Panchevo, starting at 08:40 PM.

We will play the second match against AEK Athens on August 18, starting at 08:30 PM.

On the last day of the tournament, we will compete for the final placement against a team from group A, which includes HC Struga, HC Vardar 1961, and the Swedish team Eskilstuna GUIF.

After completing the first part of the warm-ups, HC Alkaloid started the second phase of preparations for the upcoming season. The team has already arrived in Mavrovo and will spend ten days there preparing. The handball players will train in the mountain center with a focus on physical fitness, before starting the control matches. Our team is scheduled to compete in the Struga tournament (August 16-19), after which it will go for final preparations in Croatia, where it will play a series of control matches.

For the next season, in which HC Alkaloid will also compete in the European League, four new handball players will be added to our team.

Martin Velkovski, right back for the Macedonian national team, Stefan Stojchevikj, young promising pivot, as well as two international players will be joining our team for the first time. Namely, left wing Arnaud Bingo from France and goalkeeper Alejandro Romero from Cuba.

Arnaud Bingo will be the most experienced player in our team in terms of his biography. Bingo, who is 35 years old, is a former national team player for France, and during his career he has played for the Portuguese teams Benfica and Sporting, as well as for the French Tremblay and Montpellier teams.

Alejandro Romero is the second international handball player, a goalkeeper born in 1994, who has stood between the posts of Aix-en-Provence, with an excellent percentage of saves. The Cuban also played for Ponto Combo from France, the Swedish club Onnereds Aristica, and for Porto from Portugal.

Martin Velkovski is a 26-year-old right back who comes from the team of HC E. Pelister, having previously played for HC Metalurg. Martin Velkovski played for the Macedonian national team at the 2018 European Championship in Croatia, the 2020 European Championship in Austria, the 2021

World Championship in Egypt, and at the 2022 European Championship in Hungary.

Stefan Stojchevikj is a 20-year old, 207-cm tall, pivot who comes from HC Butel Skopje. He is known for having tremendous handball potential, and will have an excellent opportunity to advance in our handball club. Our strategy remains the same – affirmation of the best young Macedonian players.

The addition of these four players will bring greater experience to the field, proven quality and playing options for our staff, making the team more competitive when playing in the national Super League and the EHF European League.