Ivano Balić

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Ivano Balić
Personal information
Full name	Ivano Balić
Date of birth	April 1, 1979 (1979-04-01) (age 30)
Place of birth	Split, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Middle Back
Club information
Current club	RK Zagreb
Number	34
Youth clubs
	?
Senior clubs
1997–2001 2001–2004 2004–2008 2008–	RK Split RK Metković Portland San Antonio RK Zagreb
National team1
????– Croatia 108 (364)
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens Team World Championship Gold 2003 Portugal Team Silver 2005 Tunisia Team Silver 2009 Croatia Team European Championship Silver 2008 Norway Team
1 National team caps and goals correct as of January 2009 (UTC).

Ivano Balić (born April 1, 1979 in Split) is a Croatian handballer. He is considered to be one of the best handball players in the world and was voted 6 times in a row most valuable player in major international competitions. Also he is considered to be one of the best handball players of all time.

Contents 1 Career 2 Honours 2.1 Club 3 National 3.1 Individual

[edit] Career

Before playing handball Balić trained with the basketball club KK Split. He began his handball career with RK Split. Balić was a member of the Croatian national team that won the 2003 World Men's Handball Championship in Portugal. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2005 World Championship in Tunisia.

Balić was declared the IHF World Player of the Year in 2003 and 2006 as well as the best player in Croatia 2003. After playing for RK Metković he moved to Portland San Antonio. At the 2006 European Championship in Switzerland he was declared the tournament MVP. Even though Croatia won the 5th place on the European Men's Handball Championship 2007 in Germany, he was declared the tournament's MVP. In the 2008 European Men's Handball Championship he was the equal top scorer with 44 goals as he led Croatia to a silver medal and was also voted to be in the All-Star Team for the tournament.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Club

Liga ASOBAL: 2004/05

EHF Champions League

• Runner-up: 2005/06

Croatian Cup

• Runner-up: 2002

[edit] National

Olympic Games

• Gold: 2004

World Championship

• Winner: 2003
• Runner-up: 2005, 2009

European Championship

• Runner-up: 2008

[edit] Individual

• IHF World Player of the Year: 2003, 2006
• Croatian Sportsman of the year: 2006

v • d • e IHF World Player of the Year – Men 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) • Arpad Šterbik (2005) • Ivano Balić (2006) • Nikola Karabatić (2007) • Thierry Omeyer (2008)

Awards
Preceded by Ivan Ljubičić	Croatian Sportsman of the Year 2007	Succeeded by Filip Ude