Bojana Popović

Bojana Popović née Petrović, (born 20 November 1979) is a Montenegrin handball coach and retired handballer. She is the former head coach of ŽRK Budućnost ,

She is considered by many to be the best female handball player of the 2000s, despite not being given any official recognition. After winning the Women's EHF Champions League with Budućnost and a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games with the Montenegro national team, Bojana Popović decided to retire from handball. However, in June 2016 Popović announced she would come out of retirement and make herself available for selection by the Montenegro national handball team to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Career Bojana Popović started playing handball at Serbian club HC Naisa Niš when she was eleven years old. In 2002, Popović signed a contract with Danish team Slagelse DT, at that time coached by Anja Andersen. With Slagelse, she experienced great success: three times Champions League winner, EHF Cup winner, three Danish Championship golds and one Danish Cup.

At the end of the 2006/07 season, Popović signed a contract with Viborg HK. She then signed at contract with ZRK Buducnost,

Coaching career In August 2016 Popovic became the Interim coach for the Montenegro women's national handball team, after Dragan Adžić had left the team following a disappointing result at the 2016 Olympics. Just after month Adžić came back to the position, and Popovic switched to being the assistant coach.

From 2020 to 2025 she was the head coach of ŽRK Budućnost. Here she won the Montenegrin Championship in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Meanwhile from March 2021 until 2024, she was the head coach of the Montenegro women's national handball team. At the 2022 European Championship she guided the Montenegrin team to a bronze medal, losing to Denmark in the semifinal and beating France in the third place play-off.

In August 2025 she became the assistant coach to the Denmark women's national handball team under newly appointed Helle Thomsen. She signed a contract until 31 December 2026.

Achievements As player National team Olympic Games: Silver Medalist: 2012 World Championship: Bronze Medalist: 2001

European EHF Champions League: Winner: 2003/2004, 2004/2005, 2006/2007, 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2011/2012 EHF Cup: Winner: 2002/2003

Domestic Damehåndboldligaen: Winner: 2002/2003, 2004/2005, 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010 Danish Cup: Winner: 2001/2002, 2006/2007, 2007/2008 Serbian and Montenegrin Championship: Winner: 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 Serbian and Montenegrin Cup: Winner: 2000, 2001, 2002 Montenegrin Prva Liga: Winner: 2010/2011, 2011/2012 Montenegrin Cup: Winner: 2011, 2012

As coach

Domestic Montenegrin Prva Liga: Winner: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Montenegrin Cup: Winner: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

National team European Championship: Bronze Medalist: 2022

Awards and recognition During her handball career, Bojana Popović was considered to be the best player in the world by many. She has been chosen Player of the Year by the Danish Handball Federation four times. Popović's individual awards and achievements include: Player of the year in Denmark in 2004, 2005, 2007 Topscorer of the Danish League 2003/04 and 2004/05 Topscorer of the Champions League in 2004, 2005 and 2007 "Cup Fighter" 2008 Montenegrin Sportsperson of the Year: 2012 EHF Hall of Fame in 2023.

Private Bojana Popovic' husband Petar Popovic is a professional basketball player.