Iztok Puc - International Career

International Career

His first taste of international success came at the 1987 Junior World Championship when Yugoslavia won gold, and Puc was noticed as the most prominent player of the winning team. One year later he won a bronze medal with the Yugoslav senior team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He played his last game for Yugoslavia at the 1990 World Championship where his team finished fourth. With 97 appearances, he is the third most capped Slovenian player in history of the Yugoslav national team.

Following his move to RK Zagreb in 1990 and the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Puc became a Croatian citizen and played for the Croatian team with whom he won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He won two other medals in major tournaments with Croatia, a bronze medal at the 1994 European Championship and a silver medal at the 1995 World Championship.

In the late 1990s he switched his national side allegiance in favour of Slovenia, the country of his birth. He then played for the Slovenian team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where the team finished eighth. Slovenia qualified for the Sydney tournament after finishing fifth at the 2000 European Championship. The fifth place play-off match was played in Zagreb against host nation Croatia, Puc's former team. Puc was one of the best players of the game and Slovenia won the match 25–24, thus securing the last available spot for the 2000 Olympics. He played 34 games for Slovenia, during which he scored 120 goals.