Luka Karabatic

Luka Karabatic
Karabatic in 2016
Personal information
Born (1988-04-19) 19 April 1988
Strasbourg, France
Nationality French
Height 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)
Playing position Pivot
Club information
Current club Paris Saint-Germain
Number 22
Senior clubs
Years Team
2008–2012
 Montpellier Handball
2012–2015
 Pays d'Aix UC
2015–
 Paris Saint-Germain
National team 1
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2025
 France 172 (182)
Medal record
Olympic Games
2020 Tokyo Team
2016 Rio de Janeiro Team
World Championship
2015 Qatar
2017 France
2023 Poland/Sweden
2019 Germany/Denmark
2025 Croatia/Denmark/Norway
European Championship
2014 Denmark
2024 Germany
2018 Croatia
1 National team caps and goals correct
as of 5 July 2024

Luka Karabatic (born 19 April 1988) is a French professional handball player for Paris Saint-Germain and formerly for the French national team.[1][2]

He is the younger brother of Nikola Karabatić.

Biography

Karabatic was born in France to Croatian dad and Serbian mom. He came from a handball family – his father, Branko who is originally from Trogir, Croatia, is a former Yugoslavian handballer who played as goalkeeper in the national team. His older brother, Nikola, 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.[3]

In his first two years as professional player, Karabatic won the French championship 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.[4] In June 2006, Karabatic debuted for France in a friendly tournament in Argentina.[5]

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.[6][7] 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 France in an official competition in EHF Euro in Denmark.[8] In 2015 he won the World Championship with France.[9]

In 2015 he signed for PSG Handball.[10] Here he won the French Championship every year from 2016 to 2025, as well as the French Cup in 2017, 2021 and 2022 and the French League Cup in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

At the 2025 World Championship, he won bronze medals with France, losing to Croatia in the semifinal and beating Portugal in the third place playoff.[11] He retired from the French national team in February 2025, 8 months after his brother had done so.[12]

Titles

Personal Awards

References

  1. ^ "Luka Karabatic". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  2. ^ 2019 World Men's Handball Championship roster
  3. ^ "Résumé de la 15° Journée de D1M 2007-2008". handzone.net (in French). 7 February 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Luka Karabatic prolonge à Montpellier". Handzone.net (in French). 6 June 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  5. ^ Cédric Callier (9 June 2011). "La victoire malgré tout". lefigaro.fr. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  6. ^ Guillaume Mollaret, « Montpellier : les frères Karabatic mis en examen » in Le Figaro, 2 octobre 2012
  7. ^ Cédric Callier (15 November 2012). "Luka Karabatic file à Aix". Sport24.com. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  8. ^ "EDF M: Luka Karabatic, le frère d'armes". Handzone.net. 5 January 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  9. ^ "France: World, Olympic and European Champions". IHF. 1 February 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  10. ^ "Erster Karabatic bei PSG vorgestellt" (in German). Handball-world.com. 6 June 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  11. ^ Orup Kristensen, Oliver (2 February 2025). "Sindssyg afslutning på dramatisk bronzekamp" [Insane finish to bronze match] (in Danish). TV2 Danmark. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  12. ^ Mads Artmann Haugaard (25 February 2025). "Luka Karabatic stopper på landsholdet" (in Danish). TV2 Danmark. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  13. ^ "Revolution in the All-star team: five debutants and none of last year's names". ehfcl.com. 1 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Seven new names blow fresh wind in VELUX EHF Champions League 2017/18 All-star Team". eurohandball.com. 25 May 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
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