RK Pelister

RK Eurofarm Pelister II () is a team handball club from Bitola, North Macedonia. It serves as the second team for RK Eurofarm Pelister.

History

The original team was the first handball club in Macedonia, formed in 1946 under the name Pelagonija. It later changed its name to Pelister in 1955. The 60s were very successful, winning 4 championships starting in 1960 till the last one in 1969. The club ended up winning three more titles in the 70s. In the 80s, the 1981 season was the last winning season, capturing their 8th Macedonian league title. From the 1983-84 season, Pelister began to participate regularly in the Yugoslav Handball Championship. They finished in third place in 1985 and were runners-up in back-to-back seasons (1986–87 and 1987–88) behind the dominant club Metaloplastika Šabac. Around that time the slogan "He who hasn't played in Bitola doesn't know what real support looks like" gained popularity, being uttered by the likes of Vlado Šola, Lino Červar and Zlatan Saračević. Pelister became the first Macedonian club to play in Europe. In 1986 they defeated AS Filippos Veriasand in the 1st round, but they ended up losing in 1/8 finals from Atlético Madrid BM winning 24:19 at home and 10:19 away (34:38) aggregate. In the 1988/1989 season they reached the EHF Cup quarterfinal, eliminating SPE Strovolos Nicosia, HC Banik and finally losing out to German club ASK Vorwärts. The first leg in Bitola was won by six goals, but the second leg in Berlin resulted in a loss by seven points 22:16 and 13:22 (35:38). When the Macedonian Handball Super League was formed in 1992, Pelister became the most successful club in the country, winning five league titles and five Cups that decade. In 1996, they made it to the semi-finals of the EHF Cup Winners' Cup where they lost on aggregate by one goal to the eventual champion TBV Lemgo. A record, 7,000 fans were in attendance for the rematch in Bitola. Another proof of Pelisters' dominance at the time, seven players on Macedonia's squad at the 1999 World Men's Handball Championship in Egypt played for the club.

The club's most successful European run was made during the 2001/02 season when they played in the EHF Challenge Cup. First, they started by beating Zilant Kazan in the 3rd round and advanced to round 4, where they went on to defeat Paris Saint-Germain. In the quarterfinal they got past GAS Kilkis 52-51, setting up a semifinal match-up with Frederiksberg IF. Pelister would go on to win that tie in dramatic fashion in Bitola, when Naumče Mojsovski scored a goal in the final seconds of the game to even the score on aggregate, going through on a penalty shootout by the final score of 61-60. In the final, Pelister lost to Skjern Håndbold, but even in that match-up they still ended up winning the home game by 7 goals. Proving yet again that it was no easy task for any road team to win in Bitola.

In 2005, Trifun Kostovski with Kometal became sponsor of the club bringing back the glory days, winning another double crown and capturing its sixth domestic league title, which was a record at the time. However, the success was short lived as Kometal left following that season. Afterwards, Pelister was marred by financial problems and struggled to achieve the same level of success.

On 29 November 2019, a joint ownership was signed by the owners of RK Eurofarm Rabotnik (which as formed in 2011 and owned by Eurofarm) and RK Pelister (owned by Bitola Municipality). According to the platform, RK Eurofarm Rabotnik would change the name to RK Eurofarm Pelister, and the original RK Pelister would change its name to RK Eurofarm Pelister 2. Eurofarm Pelister will be the leading club with high European ambitions, while Eurofarm Pelister 2 will be a developmental club filled with young handball players from Bitola and all of Macedonia. The combination of a strong sponsor and a sports brand known throughout the former Yugoslavia took final shape through an agreement with the city administration in 2020. Eurofarm Pelister has already surpassed the domestic framework, played in the EHF Champions League and set the contours of a team that could return trophies back to "Boro Čurlevski" arena.

Crest, colours, supporters

Kits

Accomplishments

Domestic

* League Champions
:: Winner (14): 1961, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2005

* Cup Winners
:: Winner (6): 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2005

International

* Doboj International Handball Tournament (2)
:: 1st: 1996 and 1997

European

*EHF Cup
::Quarter-finalist (1): 1988-89

*EHF Cup Winners' Cup
:: 3rd: 1995-96

*EHF Challenge Cup
:: 2nd:: 2001–02

Arena

Sports hall "Mladost" (Macedonian: Спортска сала „Младост“) is a multi-purpose sports arena located in Bitola, North Macedonia. It was built in 1975 by the citizens of Bitola and is mainly used for handball by RK Pelister and RK Bitola, and for basketball by KK Pelister. There is also room for bowling and table tennis plus it has been used for concerts. The Arena hosted the 2007 Macedonian Basketball Cup. This sports hall was the largest on the territory of North Macedonia before the construction of the Boris Trajkovski Sports Center in Skopje.

On 21 July 2009, the arena is undergoing renovation. A new parquet floor will be installed along with new seats. The locker rooms will also be updated to meet EHF standards. Total cost of the project is about €30,000.

In January 2017, renovation of interior of the hall started. The renovation covered the floor, the stands, a new score board and a new heating system. The first match in the renovated arena was played on April 6, 2017, with the match between RK Pelister and RK Metalurg in the second round of the handball Super League play-off.

At the end of July 2018, the name of the hall was changed to "Boro Churlevski", in honor of the late Boro Churlevski, a former handball player from Bitola.Churlevski Arena has a capacity of 4000 seats.

Supporters

Abdomens () are an Ultras group, established in 1985, who support the Macedonian sports clubs from Bitola that compete under the ''Pelister'' banner, mainly FK Pelister in football and RK Pelister in handball. The group was founded in 1985 when a caravan of 15 buses traveled to support RK Pelister who was playing against Partizan Bjelovar in a handball relegation play-off match. At that time they used the name BMČM - Bitolčani, Motorcyclists, Čkembari, Macedonians (македонски: БМЧМ - Битолчани, Мотокари, Чкембари, Македонци) later shortened to just Čkembari. Soon after, the first green and white banners were created that read: "Hell Boys" (македонски: Пеколни момци) and "Green Conquerors" (македонски: Зелени освојувачи) which started organized support for Pelister at every match. Since Eurofarm Rabotnik and Pelister got mutual ownership, Čkembari became supporters of Eurofarm Rabotnik (renamed after the mutual ownership as Eurofarm Pelister).

Current squad

:''Squad for the 2024–25 season''

;Goalkeepers
*1 Valentino Štakovski
* 12 Ivan Mladenov
* Stefan Kovačevski
* Atanasij Trsunov
* Martin Jovanovski
;Right Wingers
* 44 Nenad Belistojanoski
* 47 Dejan Jugovski
;Left Wingers
* 14 Marko Dimovski
* 22 Ivan Dimitrovski
;Line players
*2 Petar Markoski
* 17 Nikola Blaževski

;Left Backs
* 10 Hristijan Mitrevski
* 25 Tomče Pecakovski
* 96 Mohamed Aziz Ben Mahfoudh
* Stefan Drogrishki
;Central Backs
* 23 Mirče Kalajdzieski
* Jovan Markovski
* Stefan Gjorgjievski
* Arhangel Trsunov
* Damjan Naumovski
;Right Backs
* 11 Simon Mirčeski
* 27 Bojan Gičev

Transfers

:''Transfers for the 2025–26 season''

; Joining
* Stefan Lazarevski (LW) ''(from youth team)''
* Slavčo Šuleski (CB) ''(from GRK Tikveš)''

; Leaving

Technical staff

* Head Coach: Aleksandar Zarkov
* Assistant coach: Vasko Dimitrovski
* Goalkeeping coach: Zoran Atanasovski
* Physiotherapist: Ivan Todorovski

Notable former players as Pelister

* Vasko Dimitrovski
* Pepi Manaskov
* Kiril Lazarov
* Filip Lazarov
* Vlatko Mitkov
* Stevče Aluševski
* Zlatko Mojsovski
* Petar Angelov
* Naumče Mojsovski
* Vančo Dimovski
* Aco Jonovski
* Vladimir Temelkov
* Rade Stojanović
* Branislav Angelovski
* Zvonko Šundovski
* Stefan Drogrishki
* Filip Kuzmanovski
* Zoran Petkovski
* Ivan Markovski
* Nikola Mitrevski
* Vasil Mitevski
* Boris Churlevski
* Igor Nikolovski
* Kire Popovski
* Kire Mitrevski
* Igor Trajkovski
* Goce Makalovski
* Tome Petrevski
* Aleksandar Zarkov
* Lazar Spirovski
* Zlatko Dimitrovski
* Igor Toskovski
* Stevce Stefanovski
* Abdula Jusifovski
* Dušan Novokmet
* Šandor Hodik
* Dejan Peric
* Aleksandar Stanojević
* Bilal Šuman

Notable former players as Eurofarm Pelister 2

* Stefan Drogrishki
* Jovan Talevski
* Blagojče Trajkovski
* Dimitar Dimitrioski
* Vasko Dimitrovski
* Dejan Kukulovski
* Filip Arsenovski
* Bojan Madzovski
* Milan Đukić
* Pavle Petrović
* Alem Hadžić
* Meris Bošnjak
* Vasilije Pečurica
* Bogdan Mijušković

Notable former coaches as Pelister

* Ante Kostelić
* Kasim Kamenica
* Nikola "Gužva" Jevremović
* Zoran Zečević
* Joško Petkovič
* Ratko Đurković
* Bogdan Macovei
* Stevče Stefanovski
* Zvonko Šundovski
* Borče Markovski
* Tome Petreski
* Aleksandar Zarkov

Notable former coaches as Eurofarm Pelister 2

* Aleksandar Jovikj

References

External links

Official Website

Facebook fan page

RFM Profile

EHF Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rk Eurofarm Pelister
Eurofarm Pelister
Handball clubs established in 1955
Sport in Bitola
1955 establishments in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia