Dominik Kuzmanović (born 15 August 2002) is a Croatian

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor 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 thr ...

player for German club

VfL Gummersbach VfL Gummersbach is a professional handball club from the German city of Gummersbach, North Rhine-Westphalia. Currently, VfL Gummersbach competes in the Handball-Bundesliga and the DHB-Pokal. The club has seen great success, especially from the ...

and the Croatian national team.

Early life

Kuzmanović was born on 15 August 2002 in

Dugo Selo Dugo Selo is a town with 17,676 inhabitants in Zagreb County, Croatia. Geography Dugo Selo (lit. ''Long Village'') is a 20 km drive from Zagreb city centre. The town covers an area of 51 km² and it consists of numerous settlements. ...

. He started playing

at the age of five. Kuzmanović attended Stjepan Radić Elementary School in

Brckovljani Brckovljani is a village and a municipality in Zagreb County, Croatia. According to the 2001 Croatian census, there are 6,837 inhabitants, in the following settlements: * Božjakovina – 178 * Brckovljani – 1,542 * Gornja Greda – 625 * ...

, where his teachers described him as an excellent student who excelled at all school subjects, including

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. He later began to practice

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

, which helped him in the position of a handball goalkeeper.

Club career

With his youth club Dugo Selo, Kuzmanović won the Croatian national championship. In 2019, he joined top- division team Nexe Našice, where the club finished second place in the

Croatian Handball Premier League The Croatian Handball Premier League () is the highest men's handball league in Croatia. It is organized by the Croatian Handball Federation (''Hrvatski rukometni savez''). The league comprises 16 teams. The league was formed in 1991 with the di ...

. In 2024, Kuzmanović joined German side

. In January 2025, he was named Croatian handballer of the year.

National team

With the Croatian youth national team, Kuzmanović won gold medals at the

2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival The 2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, between 21 and 27 July 2019. Sports The following competitions took place: Venues Schedule The competition schedule for the 2019 European Youth Olympic Summer Fes ...

. At the

2021 European Men's U-19 Handball Championship The 2021 European Men's U-19 Handball Championship was the 15th edition of the European Men's U-18 Handball Championship, which was held in Varaždin and Koprivnica, Croatia from 12 to 22 August 2021. The European Handball Federation decided t ...

, he won silver medals with the Croatian youth team. Kuzmanović represented Croatia at the

2023 World Men's Handball Championship The 2023 World Men's Handball Championship, IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 28th such event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Poland and Sweden from 11 to 29 January 2023. Denmark men's national handba ...

, playing in four matches. In the

2025 World Men's Handball Championship The 2025 IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 29th such event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway from 14 January to 2 February 2025. This edition marked the first time the world cha ...

, where Croatia finished second place, he played in eight matches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuzmanović, Dominik 2002 births Living people Croatian male handball players 21st-century Croatian sportsmen RK Nexe Našice players People from Zagreb County Handball players at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Croatia Croatian expatriate handball players in Germany VfL Gummersbach players