Luka Karabatić
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| Born | 19 April 1988 Strasbourg, France | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 103 kilograms (227 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Pivot | ||||||||||||||
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| Current club | Pays d'Aix Université | ||||||||||||||
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| France | 23 (17)[1] | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Luka Karabatić (Serbian: Лука Карабатић; born 19 April 1988 at Strasbourg) is a French-Croatian handball player for Pays d'Aix Université and the French national team.[2] He is the younger brother of Nikola Karabatić. Luka also has a Serbian nationality because of his mother origins.
Biography
Karabatić came from an handball family – his father, Branko, is a former Yugoslavian handball who played as goalkeeper in the national team. His older brother, Nikola, is one of the best handball players in the world who named as best player in the world by IHF two times, but Luka decided to play tennis and won France championship for 10 years old in 1998. In 2007, when he was 19, Luka decided to return to his family origins and started to train with the youth team of Montpellier AHB as center back. In 2009 Luka joined the senior team of the club, in the same year his older brother Nikola Karabatić returned to Montpellier AHB again.
In his first two years as professional player, Luka 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. Luka became the second pivot in rotation after Issam Tej. In June 2006, Luka debuted for France in a friendly tournament in Argentina.
In 30 September 2012, he was involved in a match-fixing and arrested with his brother Nikola and his wife. In 2 October, he was indicted and then released for €4,500. Few days after his release from custody, Luka 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, Luka and Nikola took the team to the 9th place in the league. In the end of the season, Nikola left France and signed for Barcelona.
In 2014, Luka played for the first team with France in a official competition in EHF Euro in Denmark. Luka had a major role in the French defense and won the championship. In 2015 he won the World Championship with France.
References
- ↑ "2015 World Championship Roster" (PDF). IHF. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ↑ "Luka Karabatić". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
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