World Championships | 01/15 20:30 | 1 | Croatia v Bahrain | - | View | |
World Championships | 01/17 20:30 | 2 | Croatia v Argentina | - | View | |
World Championships | 01/19 20:30 | 3 | Egypt v Croatia | - | View | |
Euro Champs Qualification 1 | 03/12 17:00 | 3 | Czech Republic v Croatia | - | View | |
Euro Champs Qualification 1 | 03/16 16:00 | 4 | Croatia v Czech Republic | - | View | |
Euro Champs Qualification 1 | 05/07 16:00 | 5 | Belgium v Croatia | - | View | |
Euro Champs Qualification 1 | 05/11 16:00 | 6 | Croatia v Luxembourg | - | View |
The Croatia national handball team (Croatian: Hrvatska rukometna reprezentacija) represents Croatia in international men's team handball competitions and friendly matches. The handball team is controlled by the Croatian Handball Federation (HRS).
Croatia won one World Championship, but never won the Euros, lost three finals, one to rivals France, one to Denmark, and one to Spain. The Croatian national team that won the 1996 Olympic gold medal was often credited as the biggest upset in history of handball, with handball making its debut appearance. The Croatian national team won a so-called "international double" after winning both the gold medal at the Olympics (2004) and the World Championship (2003), beating Germany in both finals.
Some of their biggest rivals are neighbours Slovenia, Hungary and Serbia. Germany are also called rivals of the handball team, although matches between Germany and Croatia have been met with Croatian dominance, Germany only winning once in their nine meetings, and Croatia winning seven times. Mediterranean side Spain have also been called as close rivals, having played 23 games with them, the most out of any sides the Croatians have played within handball. However, the French are often remarked as Croatia's biggest-ever rival in handball, due to both countries' successes. In recent history though, Croatia often suffered eliminations at the hands of the French.
The word handball in the Croatian region was first used by Franjo Bučar, describing the German game Schleuderball in the journal Sokol 1904. The earliest documented forms of playing handball in these areas appear in 1911 in the gymnasium of Pazin, which is among other things due to the fact that programs for education in Istria, as part of the then Austrian coast, coming from the education center in Graz. In Croatia, at the time handball was in high school programs closing ceremony. It was a kind of Czech handball extended from the Czech Republic, where it was adopted by the Osijek and Vukovar students from Prague.
In the early beginnings of the Croatian handball, venues played field handball and handball. Students were still more attracted to field handball, because the little handball were played on makeshift courts without the right door, as opposed to the field handball, which is played on the existing football fields. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia first public handball match in the Croatian region was played and in the wider neighborhood. It was played in a high school in Varaždin 29 May 1930 under the guidance of physical education teachers Zvonimir Šuligoj. Since that game, until 1950, in Croatia and Yugoslavia publicly played exclusively field handball, on the football field with eleven players on each side. In high school in Zagreb on 1 June 1935, opened the first handball courts in Yugoslavia.
At the beginning of World War II Kingdom of Yugoslavia disintegrated. Most of the territory inhabited by Croats on 10 April 1941, it became part of the newly formed Independent State of Croatia (NDH). As part of the new state on 2 October 1941 in Zagreb for the first time in history the Croatian Handball Federation (HRS) was established. The place of foundation is recorded to be at the Croatian Sports home in Jurišićeva, Zagreb. HRS is the umbrella organization of handball in the ISC coordinated the work of a dozen clubs and until 1944 organized national championships. In the state of NDH was established the first Croatian handball team. The first training for practice-match team NDH was held on 12 October 1941 between the two teams selected from the head coach Dragutin Pehe. His first and only international match this team played on 14 June 1942 with Hungary in Budapest where they lost 0:9. This field handball match was played in front of 30,000 spectators at the then NEP Stadium (since 2002 Ferenc Puskás Stadium) was a prelude meeting of the football teams of the same name. The best handball player in the field was the goalkeeper Branko Kralj. Under the direction of the coach Ante Škrtić, the players for Croatia were Vlado Abramović, Irislav Dolenec, Žarko Galetović, Zvonko Leskovar, Todor Marinov, Viktor Medved, Krešo Pavlin, Vlado Šimanović Stjepan Širić, Josip Žitnik and reserve goalkeeper Zdenko Šurina. HRS stopped functioning in 1944 because of the war in World War II.
When the 1945 World War II ended, the territory of the Independent State of Croatia was included in the newly established SFR Yugoslavia.
Immediately after that began the reconstruction of the war abandoned handball in Yugoslavia, and that same year founded the Committee for handball Gymnastics Association Croatian, and in May 1948 the Committee for handball Gymnastics Association of Yugoslavia. Operation HRS is restored on 19 December 1948, in which he, in accordance with the national policy of the new Yugoslav state, name changed in the Croatian Handball Association (RSH). Handball Federation of Yugoslavia (RSJ) was established on 17 December 1949 in Belgrade by pooling national and provincial associations, and it became a member of the International Handball Federation (IHF) in 1950.
After the end of World War II, most field handball players of NDH completed courses and became instructors or referees in handball. Some of them have become members of the field handball national team of Yugoslavia and played in its first international match, played on 19 June 1950 at the stadium in Stadion Kranjčevićeva in Zagreb, against Belgium. Yugoslavia won 18:3 playing with nine players from Zagreb, one from Split and one from Sarajevo.
Since the end of World War II until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the best Croatian handball players in field and team handball played for the national team of Yugoslavia. With this national team Croatians have performed at 17 major competitions and won seven medals. These are two Olympic gold medals, the Olympic bronze, world gold, world silver and two bronze world. Among the other famous trophy, in this period they won 5 gold medals in five appearances at the Mediterranean Games (1967, 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1991), two gold and one bronze medal at the World Cups held in 1971, 1974 and 1984 in Sweden, 2 bronze medals at handball Super League held in 1981 and 1983 in Germany and silver at the 1990 goodwill Games in Seattle.
At the World Junior Championship in 1987 in Rijeka there was created a nucleus generation that will define the nineties and bring some of the most beautiful handball stories for the Croatian national team. Alvaro Načinović, Iztok Puc, Vladimir Jelčić and other predominantly have won this championship playing for Yugoslavia, and their talent and knowledge are later incorporated as seniors in the first Croatian success after independence of the country.
Place | Croatians in the team of Yugoslavia | Croatian head coaches |
---|---|---|
10th place at WC 1952 | Irislav Dolenec (player) | Ivan Snoj / Irislav Dolenec |
5th place at WC 1955. | Irislav Dolenec (player), Stjepan Korbar | Ivan Snoj / Irislav Dolenec |
8th place at WC 1958 | Jerolim Karadža, Lovro Manestar, Božidar Peter, Zlatko Šimenc?, Ivan Špoljarić | Ivan Snoj |
9th place at SP 1961. | Anton Bašić, Ivan Đuranec, Zvonko Jandroković, Jerolim Karadža, Božidar Peter, Zlatko Šimenc? | Ivan Snoj |
6th place at WC 1964 | Vojislav Bjegović, Vinko Dekaris, Ivan Đuranec, Lujo Györy, Jerolim Karadža, Zvonko Kocijan, Josip Milković, Vladimir Vićan, Albin Vidović, Zlatko Žagmešter | Ivan Snoj |
7th place at WC 1967 | Vinko Dekaris, Ivan Đuranec, Hrvoje Horvat, Jerolim Karadža, Branko Klišanin, Josip Milković, Miroslav Pribanić, Dobrivoje Selec, Ninoslav Tomašić, Ivan Uremović, Vladimir Vićan | Ivan Snoj / Irislav Dolenec |
Gold medal at MG 1967 | Hrvoje Horvat, Miroslav Klišanin, Josip Milković, Ivan Uremović, Albin Vidović | Ivan Snoj / Vlado Štencl |
Bronze medal at WC 1970 | Abas Arslanagić, Hrvoje Horvat, Marijan Jakšeković, Dragutin Mervar, Josip Milković, Miroslav Pribanić, Zlatko Žagmešter | Ivan Snoj / Vlado Štencl |
Gold medal at WC 1971 | Ivan Snoj | |
Gold medal at OG 1972 | Abas Arslanagić, Hrvoje Horvat, Zdravko Miljak, Miroslav Pribanić, Dobrivoje Selec, Albin Vidović, Zdenko Zorko | Ivan Snoj / Vlado Štencl |
Bronze medal at WC 1974 | Abas Arslanagić, Hrvoje Horvat, Zdravko Miljak, Željko Nimš, Zvonimir Serdarušić, Zdenko Zorko | Ivan Snoj / Josip Milković |
Gold medal at WC 1974 | Ivan Snoj | |
Gold medal at MG 1975 | Abas Arslanagić, Zdravko Miljak, Željko Nimš, Miroslav Pribanić, Zvonimir Serdarušić, Zdenko Zorko | Ivan Snoj |
5th place at OG 1976 | Abas Arslanagić, Hrvoje Horvat, Zdravko Miljak, Željko Nimš, Zvonimir Serdarušić, Zdenko Zorko | Ivan Snoj / Pero Janjić |
5th place at WC 1978 | Hrvoje Horvat, Zdravko Miljak, Željko Nimš, Zvonimir Serdarušić, Željko Vidaković, Zdenko Zorko | Ivan Snoj / Zdravko Malić |
Gold medal at MG 1979 | Pavle Jurina, Željko Vidaković, Zdravko Zovko, Željko Zovko | |
6th place OG 1980 | Pavle Jurina, Stjepan Obran | |
Bronze medal SC 1981 | ||
Silver medal at WC 1982 | Mirko Bašić, Pavle Jurina, Stjepan Obran, Zdravko Zovko | |
Bronze medal SC 1983 | ||
Gold medal at MG 1983 | Mirko Bašić, Pavle Jurina, Stjepan Obran, Željko Vidaković, Zdravko Zovko | |
Bronze medal at SC 1984 | ||
Gold medal at OG 1984 | Mirko Bašić, Pavle Jurina, Zdravko Zovko / Abas Arslanagić (GK coach) | |
Gold medal at WC 1986 | Mirko Bašić, Zlatko Saračević / Abas Arslanagić (GK coach and fitness coach) | |
Bronze medal at OG 1988 | Mirko Bašić, Boris Jarak, Alvaro Načinović, Goran Perkovac, Iztok Puc, Zlatko Saračević, Irfan Smajlagić | Abas Arslanagić |
4th place at WC 1990 | Mirko Bašić, Nenad Kljaić, Iztok Puc, Zlatko Saračević, Irfan Smajlagić, Ratko Tomljanović | |
Silver medal at GG 1990 | Patrik Ćavar, Bruno Gudelj, Nenad Kljaić | |
Gold medal at MG 1991 | Tomislav Farkaš, Valter Matošević |