The Sportel Awards recently unveiled the recipient of the upcoming 2024 Legend Award. Nikola Karabatic, who has just completed his sixth Olympic Games in Paris, will be honoured in Monte-Carlo on Monday 28 October 2024, during the Sportel Awards ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum.
Known as the best player in the history of handball, the left-back has won an astounding 61 club titles, including three in the Champions League and 22 in the National Championships. After 23 professional seasons, the 40-year old recently announced his retirement after playing in the Paris Games.
Born on 11 April 1984 in Serbia, Nikola Karabatic was a gifted handball player from an early age. He joined the Montpellier Training Centre in 2001, played his first match with the professional team at the age of 17 and won the first Champions League for a French club in 2003. After spending four seasons in Germany at THW Kiel (306 goals in 49 matches in his first year alone) the player returned to France in 2009. Throughout the years, his talent and popularity continued to increase and he quickly became a crowd favourite. After two seasons in Catalonia with FC Barcelona, Nikola Karabatic joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2015.
“This prodigy, endowed with great technical skills and a rare vision of the game, is the most successful player in the history of world handball,” says a recent press release by Sportel.
The three-time Olympic gold-medalist, one-time silver medalist, four-time World Champion, four-time European Champion has a total of 17 international medals. Voted Best Player in the World three times by the International Handball Federation, and “Champion of Champions 2011” by newspaper L’Équipe, the athlete will soon be receiving the Sportel Legend Award.
“We are very proud to welcome Nikola Karabatic to Monaco, who has demonstrated his exceptional potential on courts around the world for over 20 years….We will honour this champion like no other and the SPORTEL Awards Legend Prize that will be presented to him during our ceremony will magnificently mark a remarkable career,” said Marine Picoulet, head of SPORTEL Awards.
After Didier Deschamps in 2018, Alain Prost in 2019, Katarina Witt in 2023, Nikola Karabatic, was unanimously recognized as the GOAT of Handball and will be honoured in Monaco for his immense talent and exceptional career.
