The Brightest Stars in Handball History: Ivano Balic

GamingZion presents Ivano Balic, a player whose career left deep traits in the development and the popularity of handball.

On 5th of June 2015 the world handball remained deprived for the biggest star it has ever created. The social networks used for exchanging information in the handball world were set on fire during the day. Under the hashtags #balicforever, #ThankYouIvano, #hvalaivano, thousands of handball fans all over the globe sent photographs, videos and statements of the player who opened a new era in the history of the sports: the unrepeatable handball virtuoso, Ivano Balic.

• Balic was two times IHF handball player of the year
• The “handball Mozart” is the player with most MVP awards in history
• Winning the Champions League was Balic’s unfulfilled dream

His status of a handball icon is out of question. He is in the focus of every media and handball fan wherever he might go. For years he has been criticized by sport journalist for his non-sporty lifestyle. All the critiques he received with an ironic smile, implying that the only measure for a sportsman career is that what is shown on the court. And he showed us something we have never seen before: an aesthetics of handball with irresistible charm.

Ivano Balic’s early beginnings and the development into handball’s finest

Balic started his sport career as a basketball player in Jugoplasitika but soon saw the possibilities that handball can offer for someone who can exhibit the skills of a basketball playmaker with a small handball ball. In 1997 he joined RK Split in 1997, and in 2001 moved to RK Metkovic, gambling news reports. His incredible technique as a central back, the magical assistances to the pivots, the passes from behind the back had soon become a brand mark of Balic. The elegance and easiness with which Ivano performed all the tricks from his repertoire promoted him on the EHF EURO 2004 as one of the most attractive handball players in the world. From then the epithet “handball Mozart” become inseparable from the name of Ivano Balic.

No handball player in history have been chosen for MVP on the major international tournaments more than Balic, ruling world’s handball for five consecutive years. It started with the MVP award on the EHF EURO 2004 in Slovenia, following the MVP awards on the Olympic Games in Athens the same year, the World Championship next year, the EHF EURO in 2006 and the World Championship in Germany in 2007. Having this in mind, it is not difficult to understand why he is considered to be “the MVP of all MVPs”. Toghether with Talant Dujshebaev and Nikola Karabatic, Balic is the only player who won the IHF Handball player of the year award twice, in 2003 and in 2006.

In 2010 more almost 50 % of the users of the official page of the International Handball Federation voted Balic for the best male handball player of all time, report online gambling sites in the EU. In competition with him for this most prestigious award in the career of a handball player were three other masters of this sport: Talant Dujshebaev, Joachim Deckarm and Nikola Karabatic

The dreams that never came true for Ivano Balic

But sometimes the handball “Fortuna” doesn’t always follow the greatest. He received most prestigious individual honors in the handball world but missed two titles for a full collection of gold in his “showcase”: the gold from the European Championships and the one from the Champions League.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uabte4GEdk4

He reached the EHF EURO final in two occasion but failed to conquer Europe. On the European championship in Norway in 2008 his Croatia lost the final against Denmark, while in 2010 they were defeated by the French all-star team. With his club Portland San Antonio he also played once in the EHF Champions League Finals, in the season 2005/06, when they lost both final matches against the super powerful team of Ciudad Real. After spending four years in Zagreb in 2012 Balic returned back to Spain in what would be his last try to win the Champions League.

He signed for BM Atletico de Madrid, which was the champions League finalist from the previous year and considered by the online sportsbooks in the US to be one of the favorites for winning the Champions League in 2012/13. However the problems with injured players in the club, especially the one of their captain, goal keeper Jose Javier Hombrados, did not allow the club to advance further that year. They lost in the 1/4 final of the Champions league against the team of F.C. Barcelona. These were the last two matches that Ivano Balic played in the EHF Champions League.

On 5th of June this year Ivano Balic played his last game in the shirt of Wetzlar, where he spent his last two seasons. “The handball goes on”, he would say. True. But the handball world will lack the presence of the player that gave this sport its full artistic beauty: his majesty, Ivano Balic.