Our Men’s Handball Team has renewed the contracts of its 12 players and added 4 new names to its rooster in a collective signing ceremony.

While keeping Mustafa Aközlüer, Yılmaz Özgür, İbrahim Demir, Oğuzhan Büyük, Utku Ergüder, Valeri Parshkov, Ramazan Döne, Ozan Arifoğlu, Bülent Erkol, Ercan Aşık, Gökhan Aksu and Safet Halilagiç in the team for another year, the management has transferred; Nesih Çakar from Mersin Yenişehir Belediyesi, Vlademir Zeliç from SC. Horta, Stanislav Tutiç from Partizan and  Dmitry Federov from Russia.
The signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Behçet Ümitlen, our Vice-President, Mr. Bülent Deriş, Board Member in Charge of Volleyball, Handball, Rowing and Boxing branches and Levent Çifter, Coordinator for the activities of Club’s Foundation.
Our Board Members Behçet Ümitlen and Bülent Deriş made these comments regarding to our Handball Team’s upcoming season:
Behçet Ümitlen: Handball is one of our leading braches in the club and has special place in Beşiktaş’s history. We are the first team that set up a handball branch among the top 3 teams in Istanbul. Before all else, we must continue to display good sportsmanship on the court this year, because there are other important things than simply getting the best results game after game. Nevertheless, I hope we finish first at the end of the season and wish all our opponents the best.
Bülent Deriş: Thanks to generous contributions from our President, Mr. Yıldırım Demirören and the distinguished members of the board, our investments in amateur braches have been increasing steadily. We have added some talented players to our lineup with the intention of bringing that championship cup we barely missed last season back to our museum.
Our Handball Team’s Coach Müfit Arın, General Manager Bilal Eyüboğlu and players Gökhan Sarı and İbrahim Demir also spoke about their expectations for the next season:
Müfit Arın: This year, we’ve managed to put together a team similar to the one which became an undefeated champion 4 years ago. All of us were quite disappointed when we narrowly missed that championship title last year. But this year, we have a much stronger team, and no one will be able to stop us.
Bilal Eyüboğlu: Four new faces added to our roaster have definitely made us stronger. I am confident we will be able to go all the way and capture the title we narrowly missed out last season.
Gökhan Aksu: In fact, last season, we only loaned them the cups we usually keep in our museum. This season, we will go out and bring them where they belong.
İbrahim Demir: With the new additions to our team, we’ve increased our defensive and offensive efficiencies. Our new foreign players will definitely make up difference during our close games. Since the league status has changed, we will play an extra game this season. If every member of our team goes out and fulfills his duty on the court, there is no reason why we shouldn’t win everything this year.