Expectations on Rivera will be to render Qatar’s continental dominance into performances at the global stage.
The Qatar Handball Association has appointed the most successful head coach in its history, Valero Rivera, aiming to replicate the success during his first stint with the Maroons.
Rivera will replace Veselin Vujovic on the job, who was appointed a year ago following the Spaniard’s 11-year spell as Qatar’s head coach.
“His leadership was pivotal in elevating the Qatari team to the ranks of the world’s elite,” the Qatar Handball Association said, confirming Rivera was already in Doha with the team.
“Rivera is currently leading the team’s training sessions at the Federation Hall in Duhail in preparation for the upcoming stage, which will see our national team face many challenges.”
Rivera led the Qatar National team from 2013 to 2024 in five IHF World Handball Championships, with the most notable feat coming as a second-place finish at the home tournament in 2015. He also brought Qatar’s maiden continental championship in 2014 and followed it up with four consecutive wins in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022.
The former Barcelona and Spain coach announced his departure in 2023, which coincided with the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Vujovic then succeeded the experienced Spaniard in August 2024, vowing to scale new heights and “inject new blood” in the six-time Asian champions’ squad.
Qatar then finished 21st at the recent World Handball Championship jointly held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway under the Montenegrin head coach, whose contract expired this summer, according to the Qatar Handball Association.
“Officials at the Handball Federation did not find in him [Vujovic] the stability they were seeking,” it said in the announcement.
Hence, the expectation on Rivera will be to restore Qatar’s at the World Stage while continuing to dominate at the Asian level.
His first task at hand will be the Islamic Solidarity Games set to be held in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh in November. The 2026 Asian Handball Championship and the World Championship in 2027 will then follow.
“The decision was clear,” the federation’s official statement said. “Rivera has had a profound impact on Qatari handball’s history, coupled with his vast experience and deep knowledge of Qatari handball and competing teams in continental and international competitions.”
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation, and don’t publish clone new content more than just one time
