As much as three pages of Sportske novosti were dedicated to the best Croatian handball player on the eve of the World Championship in Qatar. In the interview with Dražen Pinević, Domagoj emphasized: 'I am not giving up on my mission to go for all the gold medals with Croatia'.

As a reminder, on the club level he won in finals, won championships, medals with the national team, and came back with a medal from almost every major competition, but is still lacking the most coveted one. Bronze at the Olympics, one silver and bronze at world championships, and two silvers and one bronze in European championships.

Does all this talk of gold, as it was a given, an everyday thing, put pressure on you personally. They say that being a leader, that it is the only thing missing for you to be even better? – this was the question to which Domagoj answered: I’m not bothered at all by things like that, nor do I take them personally. This is not about me, it’s about the team, and a lot of other things are important which sometimes cannot be influenced. You cannot win the handball gold on your own.

'There is no point in discussing a medal at the World Championship in Qatar because it won’t get us anywhere. Some might think that all this talk about Austria and the importance of the first opponent is overdoing it a bit, that we are the favourites here, but I know how important that is. And whatever anyone might think, that is the only thing that matters to us right now'.

Croatia is playing in a group with Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Tunisia and Iran.

'What is the plan for the group phase? We take it game at a time, get first place and hope it will lead to a better bracket later on in the tournament. Of course, that doesn’t have to necessarily mean anything because the group we are joining also has very good national teams and anything can happen between them. Realistically, we are the favourites in our group, but only on paper'.

Domagoj has already played in Doha, the host of the World Championship.

'Have you ever been to Qatar? Have I been to Qatar... I played with Hamburg at the Super Globe and with the youth national team at the World Championship. We played in the finals on both occasions. Hamburg lost to Barcelona, and we lost to the Danes, which then had Landin and Markussen. I won’t go on...'

Pinević wrote: He stopped there and laughed. He was in two Doha finals, and you know what they say... Domagoj did not say anything. But we will add one more question in conclusion: It is a bit of the same every year round and you always say that you are tired, that this is hard work, but this time you did not mention this even once?

'It’s because I’m not tired, I feel great, I am beyond prepared. The only thing is that I didn’t get to go to Đakovo, because I arrived earlier to training camp than I usually do, and I had to apply for some personal documents in Zagreb, and also ended up at a New Year’s Eve party there' – Domagoj said.