Jeruzalem Ormoz

The neighbourly derby against RK Maribor Branik decides more than a table position; the two clubs sit close enough on the map that every meeting carries a weight the league standings do not explain. Ormož has rarely had the better of the bigger names in Slovenian handball, but that fixture is the one where form gets set aside.

The club has spent most of its history working from the middle of the table rather than the top of it. Third place in the 2004–05 season remains its high point in the league, and it has never gone further than a runner-up finish in the Slovenian Cup, losing the 2023 final to RK Celje Pivovarna Laško 24–35. Even so, it has kept turning up in Europe: the 2024–25 EHF European League campaign took it as far as the round of 16, a rare Slovenian representative to get that deep against clubs with far larger budgets.

Marko Bezjak's connection to the club runs longer than most players'. He came through at Ormož early in his career before moving on, and returned years later as player-coach, which gives the club a link to a name known well beyond Slovenian handball.

Locally, the team is known as Plavi, after the blue in its colours, and Dvorana Hardek holds only 700 people — a small ground even by the standards of Slovenian handball, which does not lend itself to big European nights but keeps the derby atmosphere close and loud.

What Ormož has not managed, across close to seven decades, is a Slovenian league title.