Handball-like games have been played for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. While the game as we know it today was formalized in Germany and Scandinavia in the twentieth century, ball sports played with the hand have long been practiced across the world, from Ancient Egypt to Ireland in the Middle Ages. Today, the game is a globally-popular professional sport, with the
set to exceed the 30 million euro mark in 2023. The
themselves can also earn millions, with France’s Nikola Karabatić earning an estimated 1.8 million euros per year. However, handball is not just for players at elite clubs:
revealed that an estimated 30 million people play the sport worldwide, in nearly 130,000 teams.
Which country is the best at handball?
Handball is played at international level in a number of top competitions. In terms of the
countries with the most Olympic medals for handball, France leads the way, with a total of seven. The French team has also won the most
IHF World Men’s Handball Championship titles, winning on six occasions, and even came close to adding a seventh title in 2023 when they finished as runners-up to Denmark. Meanwhile, other countries have had success in different areas, with Portugal being the
winners of the first ever World and European Wheelchair Handball Championship, taking home the inaugural trophy in late 2022.
Which country has the strongest handball clubs?
In the European Handball Federation’s (EHF)
ranking of the leading women’s handball leagues in Europe, Hungary’s Nemzeti Bajnokság I placed first, ahead of France’s LFH Division 1 Féminine. Meanwhile, the handball division of FC Barcelona has won the
most men’s EHF Champions League titles, with a total of 10. By comparison, the team with the second-most titles, THW Kiel, has won four. It is perhaps unsurprising then that in the
men’s EHF Champions League all-time table, FC Barcelona ranks first.
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