Celje

Zlatorog Arena holds just over 5,000 people, and on European nights every one of those seats sits close enough to the court to matter, which suits a team whose game has always leaned on noise and tempo. Handball in the city traces back to 1946, when two local sides, Celje and Olimp, merged the following year into what became the Kladivar Sports Association — the point the club still marks as its own beginning.

The name most people actually use, Pivovarji ("the Brewers"), has nothing to do with folklore and everything to do with a sponsorship deal: Laško Brewery attached itself to the club in 1990 and has stayed on the shirt ever since.

Across the Savinja and Šalek valleys sits Gorenje Velenje, and the derby between the two clubs carries weight beyond the scoreline — Celje and Velenje are the only sides to have played every single season of the Slovenian First League since it started in 1991.

The club's defining night came in 2003–04. Under coach Miro Pozun, Celje beat SG Flensburg-Handewitt 62–58 on aggregate to win the EHF Champions League, still the only time a Slovenian side has reached that final and taken it. The academy has kept producing for Europe's biggest clubs since: Blaž Janc moved on to Kielce and then Barcelona, Luka Žvižej to Barcelona and later Szeged, while Gašper Marguč left for Veszprém and returned to Celje in 2026.

At home there has been little room for anyone else. The collection now stands at 27 Slovenian league titles and 23 domestic cups.