Dujshebaev’s game: “I prefer sometimes to give a good assist”

“I'm looking for a challenge. I think I'm looking for a team that wants to build something big,” he says about the decision to make a change. “When I go to a team or a national team, I just try to help the team to see how I can find the way to help to be a little bit better — just one, maybe one person — but to try to help them reach something new, or to be one step higher than before.”

“They showed the world how big a club can be”

Dujshebaev was 25 when he arrived at Kielce, fresh from winning the EHF Champions League with Vardar. 

“Always, when I think of Vardar, I'm smiling because I think it was a really nice period of my life. I came there like a child, and I grew there a lot, like a man. I think those were some very important years for me, for my career, because I started to really play on the Champions League level that I want and I expect,” says Dujshebaev. 

When he clinched the EHF Champions League trophy with Vardar, it was with a one-goal win over PSG. In 2021/22, Kielce lost the final to Barcelona following overtime and a penalty shootout. In 2022/23, the defeat was by just one goal versus Magdeburg. 

It is not only in the EHF Champions League that Dujshebaev has experienced playing big matches decided in crunch time. A two-time EHF EURO winner with Spain, runner-up in the continental event once, and bronze medallist at two Olympic Games and two World Championships, Dujshebaev has tasted victory, but he has also suffered heartbreaking losses. 

“It's really a very thin line between being successful or a failure, or to lose, but I think the important way is that you try to compete every day because this is, I think, the biggest part of us, like, sportsmen and handball players — the discipline and the constancy to be there not just one day,” says Dujshebaev. 

“Maybe sometimes you think at some point that you are good, or you are on this level, but if you're asleep a little bit or you're relaxed, you lose a little bit of the focus. For sure, someone behind will push stronger to be there in your place.

“It's these small details that maybe no one sees or no one knows that will, at the end of the day, give you this success at the biggest stage.

“There are a lot of parts of the game — it’s the physical part, it’s the mental part, for sure, it’s a little bit of luck. But if you do your best every day, with all the consistency that you can have and try to reach your goals, for sure, you will get this extra one per cent that maybe will give you the medal or the win at the end of the day.”

An evolving Kielce

Having been at Kielce for almost a decade, Dujshebaev has seen players come and go — and with the changes in the line-up, the style of play has also transformed year by year. 

“When I arrived, it was more like a rebuilding team, we were creating a new project that wanted to compete at the very highest level,” he says, elaborating on how experience was replaced with young players with big potential. “We, of course, reached a peak like two, three years, or two, three seasons ago, with really good players, but also with a very good level of handball with speed, with power, I think also with very good defence in the goal. But I think at this point we were maybe in our best stage.

“The last two years, maybe, we were also again in a new rebuilding of the team, like trying to focus and create a new perspective of the club, of the team. And I think in that way, we are working to improve ourselves, to have better results, but also to build for the future.”

How has that evolution in the team impacted the way Dujshebaev has been playing?  

“A few years ago, I think our way of conception of the game was different. Maybe we go to lower results, to less goals, to keep more focus on good action,” says the right back. “With the last two, three seasons, or the last two, three years, there has been a big difference in the game.

“We can make fewer changes in attack to defence. We are always trying to make maybe more changes during the game, so that everyone plays at their 100 per cent when they are on the field, because we know that nowadays handball is going in this direction — that the results are always higher because we are going for our fastest handball. 

“We are trying to focus more on a good tactical action, trying to manage to get a good situation to shoot,” continues Dujshebaev. “We have good players on the line, for example, we try to create a lot of advantage there.”

“We always try to create a concrete advantage on the side of the court”

Speaking on his favourite moves or actions, Dujshebaev highlights the idea of looking beyond himself, even if he has a good shooting opportunity. He finds that such moments, where an additional pass is made, can help build confidence for all the players on court. 

“I always try to look for the goal,” he says, but “I prefer sometimes to give a good assist, maybe even if I get a good shooting situation. If I see that I have a teammate who maybe has a little bit better, or easier way to score a goal, I will try to find this way.

“If we create a better situation for each other, in which you are alone or you are on a good way to score a goal, I think it will be easier for the team to have this feeling and this confidence that we can give one extra pass.”

Dujshebaev is mainly an attacking specialist, defending on the wing when he is on court for that part of the game. 

“Of course I prefer always to be on the field!” he laughs, but “We have a lot of good defenders on the team that can give us better chances and of course we always try to be at 100 per cent.”

Coming into the attack, the focus is on combining the pre-game study with the reality on court in front of him.

“I always try, when we first take the ball in attack, to check out the defence at this point,” says Dujshebaev, adding that he is assessing what weaknesses there might be. “We can make this situation, maybe we can put in the pivot, maybe we can play one-against-one more on the left side of the defence. Maybe we can find some good situations, because in all our tactics, we always try to create a concrete advantage on the side of the court and then find a better solution in that way.”

“It’s like, ‘I know that you know’”

Playing for Spain, Dujshebaev has been present at most major championships in his career through to the final weekend. In the last two Olympic Games, two of the last three World Championships and three EHF EUROs in a row, Dujshebaev was part of the medal round. That often means encountering familiar foes such as France or Denmark — and the players in the top national teams are also meeting each other on a regular basis in the EHF Champions League. 

“As much as we play against some players or some teams, it’s more difficult to surprise them. But we always try to prepare something special or something different for each team or player, because, of course, they are also trying to improve themselves,” says Dujshebaev. 

“Handball, or even sport, is always evolving, and then you need to find new ways. Maybe something that worked in the last game, maybe when you play a back-to-back game, at the next game, it comes from the weakest point of this defence or of this situation to their training and then they are ready for this and it's difficult to surprise them.

“It's like, ‘I know that you know,’ and then it’s difficult. You have to overthink sometimes. But for sure I think it's part of the game. I think it’s one of the most, I would say, emotional or mental parts of the game, that when you face some players that many times, you know that they also know you, and maybe you have to improve yourself or make something new to surprise them.” 

Dujshebaev says this is part of the work of the coach — it is their job to find or start a new approach to beat familiar rivals. 

“For sure, I enjoyed watching him a lot. For sure, he was my role model”

Speaking of coaches and coming to his handball idols growing up, for Dujshebaev, the question is an easy one to answer. 

“For sure it was my father,” he says of the two-time IHF World Player of the Year, one-time EHF Champions League winner as a player and four times as a coach. 

“I grew up looking at him like a person, like a man, and like a handball player. I enjoyed watching him a lot. For sure, he was my role model, my idol at this point, and he still has been there over all these years — has been my role model, I tried the best to inspire myself from him.” 

It is early days in the 2025/26 season yet, but the end of it will bring a farewell — for now at least — to Dujshebaev’s days working with his father as coach. It will also conclude a great chapter in his career, and he is highly motivated to deliver a great finish. 

“For me, it was really nice to spend a lot of years here, really. Nowadays, in handball, it’s difficult to be able to stay that much in just one club, and I really appreciate everything that the club and the city gave me in that period. I will just try to do this last season, to give my best to try to finish in the best way.”

Photos © Tomasz Fafara (main), Axel Heimken, @Fotolaechler; Jozo Cabraja, Eva Manhart, Uros Hocevar / kolektiff (in-text)