Ivano Balić

Ivano Balić (born April 1, 1979 in Split) is a Croatian handballer. He is considered to be the best handball player in the world and was voted 6 times in a row most valuable player in major international competitions. Also he is considered to be one of the best handball players of all time.

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 and 2006 as well as the best player in Croatia 2003. 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. In the 2008 European Men's Handball Championship he was the equal top scorer with 44 goals as he led Croatia to a silver medal and was also voted to be in the All-Star Team for the tournament.