Ivano Balić
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Handball | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 2004 Athens | Croatia | |
| World Men's Handball Championship | |||
| Gold | 2003 Portugal | Croatia | |
| Silver | 2005 Tunisia | Croatia | |
Ivano Balić (born April 1, 1979 in Split) is a Croatian handballer. He is considered to be one of the best player in the world and was voted 6 times in a row most valuable player in major international competitions. A big remembarence for him is in a friendly match while playing for Croatia. In an amazing performance, he managed to trick the goalkeeper by putting the ball through his legs and then taking it back out and lightly throwing it over a stunned goalkeeper and into the net.
Before playing handball Balić trained with the basketball club KK Split. He began his handball career with RK Split. Balić was a member of the Croatian national team that won the 2003 World Men's Handball Championship in Portugal. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2005 World Championship in Tunisia.
Balić was declared the IHF World Player of the Year in 2003 as well as the best player in Croatia. After playing for RK Metković he moved to Portland San Antonio. At the 2006 European Championship in Switzerland he was declared the tournament MVP. Even though Croatia won the 5th place on the European Men's Handball Championship 2007 in Germany, he was declared the tournament's MVP.
Veselin Vujović (1988) · Kang Jae-Won (1989) · Magnus Wislander (1990) · Talant Dujshebaev (1994) · Jackson Richardson (1995) · Talant Dujshebaev (1996) · Stéphane Stoecklin (1997) · Daniel Stephan (1998) · Rafael Guijosa (1999) · Dragan Skrbić (2000) · Yoon Kyung-shin (2001) · Bertrand Gille (2002) · Ivano Balić (2003) · Henning Fritz (2004) · Arpad Šterbik (2005) ·
