- Nikola Karabatić
-
Nikola Karabatić 
Personal information Full name Nikola Karabatić Date of birth April 11, 1984 Place of birth Niš, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia Height 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Playing position Left Back Club information Current club Montpellier HB Number 22 Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 2000-2005 Montpellier HB (236) 2005-2009 THW Kiel 122 (757) 2009- Montpellier HB 0 (0) National team 2000- France 141 (602) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).Medal record Men's handball Competitor for 
FranceSummer Olympics Gold 2008 Beijing Team competition World Championships Gold 2011 Sweden Team competition Gold 2009 Croatia Team competition Bronze 2003 Portugal Team competition Bronze 2005 Tunisia Team competition European Championships Gold 2006 Switzerland Team competition Gold 2010 Austria Team competition Bronze 2008 Norway Team competition Nikola Karabatić (Serbian: Никола Карабатић; born April 11, 1984 in Niš, Serbia (then SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia)) is a French team handball player, born to a Croatian father and Serbian mother. He was part of the French national handball team[1] that won the bronze medal at the 2008 European Men's Handball Championship. He was top scorer at the championship together with Ivano Balić and Lars Christiansen, and was voted as Most Valuable Player at the championship. He also won the gold medal with France at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, beating Iceland 28-23 and scoring 8 goals.
Contents
With the French national team
He is World Champion, Olympic and European Champion. He is European Champion from 2006, and received a bronze medal in 2008. He has received two bronze medals at the World Championships, in 2003 and 2005. At the 2007 World Men's Handball Championship he was voted into the All-Star Team, when France finished fourth. He was also voted into the All Star Team at the 2004 European Men's Handball Championship.
Club player
Karabatić played for the German club THW Kiel, becoming German champions in 2006 2007 and 2008, and winning the EHF Champions League in 2007. He is earlier French champion in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 with the club Montpellier HB, which also won the Champions League in 2003. The summer 2009 he left Germany for the French top club, Montpellier HB.
Personal
Nikola's father Branko Karabatić, originally from a village near Trogir, Croatia, was also a professional handball player. In his career, Branko played for the Železničar handball team from Niš, which is where he met his wife Radmila who is from Aleksinac, Serbia.[2] The family moved to France when Nikola was 3 and a half years old after Branko got a coaching job there.
Nikola has a brother Luka.
References
- ^ "France" – European Handbal Federation (2008) (Retrieved on January 31, 2008)
- ^ Код куће говоримо само српски , Ilustrovana Politika, January 22, 2009
External links
Veselin Vujović (1988) • Kang Jae-Won (1989) • Magnus Wislander (1990) • Talant Duyshebaev (1994) • Jackson Richardson (1995) • Talant Duyshebaev (1996) • Stéphane Stoecklin (1997) • Daniel Stephan (1998) • Rafael Guijosa (1999) • Dragan Škrbić (2000) • Yoon Kyung-shin (2001) • Bertrand Gille (2002) • Ivano Balić (2003) • Henning Fritz (2004) • Árpád Sterbik (2005) • Ivano Balić (2006) • Nikola Karabatić (2007) • Thierry Omeyer (2008) • Sławomir Szmal (2009) • Filip Jícha (2010)
Categories:- 1984 births
- Living people
- French handball players
- French people of Croatian descent
- French people of Serbian descent
- Handball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Handball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Olympic handball players of France
- Olympic gold medalists for France
- People from Niš
- Montpellier Agglomération Handball players
- Olympic medalists in handball
- Serbian emigrants to France
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
