Luka Karabatic (born 19 April 1988) is a French

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team.2019 World Men's Handball Championship roster
/ref> He is the younger brother of Nikola Karabatić.

Biography

Karabatic was born in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to Croatian dad and Serbian mom. He came from a handball family – his father,

Branko Branko (Cyrillic script: Бранко; ) is a South Slavic male given name found in all of the former Yugoslavia. It is related to the names Branimir and Branislav, and the female equivalent is Branka. People named Branko include: * Branko Babić ...

who is originally from Trogir, Croatia, is a former Yugoslavian handballer who played as goalkeeper in the national team. His older brother,

Nikola Nikola () is a given name which, like Nicholas, is a version of the Greek ''Nikolaos'' (Νικόλαος). It is common as a masculine given name in the South Slavic countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montene ...

, is one of the best handball players in the world who was named best player in the world by IHF two times, but Karabatic decided to play tennis and won France championship for 10 years old in 1998. In 2007, when he was 19, Karabatic started to train handball with the youth team of Montpellier Handball as center back. In 2009 he joined the senior team of the club, in the same year his older brother returned to Montpellier AHB again. In his first two years as professional player, Karabatic won the

French championship The French rugby league championship (french: Le Championnat de France de Rugby à XIII) has been the major rugby league tournament for semi-professional and professional clubs in France since the sport was introduced to the country in the 1930s. ...

two times in 2009 and 2010. After his two successful seasons in Montpellier, the club decided to extend his contract until 2016. He became the second pivot in rotation after

Issam Tej Issam Tej (born 29 July 1979) is a former Tunisian/Qatari handball player for Al Rayyan and the Qatar. He competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He also competed for the Tunisian national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London ...

. In June 2006, Karabatic debuted for

in a friendly tournament in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. On 30 September 2012, he was involved in a match-fixing and arrested with his brother Nikola and his wife. On 2 October, he was indicted and then released for €4,500. Few days after his release from custody, Karabatic released from Montpellier AHB because of "serious disciplinary offenses". He signed for Pays d'Aix Université, which only promoted to LNH Division 1, with his brother Nikola. In their first season in the club, the Karabatic brothers took the team to the 9th place in the league. In 2014, Karabatic played for the first time with

in an official competition in EHF Euro in Denmark. In 2015 he won the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

with France.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karabatic, Luka 1988 births Living people French male handball players French people of Serbian descent French people of Croatian descent Sportspeople from Strasbourg Olympic handball players of France Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for France Olympic medalists in handball Montpellier Handball players Handball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for France