The Yugoslavia national handball team was the national handball team of Yugoslavia. It was organized by the Handball Federation of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav national handball team was made up of a handball players from the separate regions of the then SFR Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia).

History The Handball Federation of Yugoslavia (RSJ) was founded on December 17, 1949 in Belgrade by merging republican and provincial federations, and became a member of the International Handball Federation (IHF) in 1950. Field handball first match The first international match, played on June 19, 1950 at the stadium in Kranchevicheva Street in Zagreb, against Belgium. Yugoslavia won 18:3 playing with nine players from Zagreb and one each from Sarajevo and Split.Small handball was played publicly for the first time in Yugoslav territories on February 24, 1950, in the Fair hall (today the Technical Museum) on Savska aley in Zagreb. It was the first public handball match played in the hall. Indoor Handball In the beginning, small handball was mainly played on open courts, and later more and more in halls. The possibility of playing in the hall and in a smaller space enabled continuous changes in the situation on the field and better contact with the spectators. That's why small handball was quickly accepted, and thus slowly supplanted big handball, which was played less and less.Until 1953, all official handball competitions in Yugoslavia were in large handball, and since then national championships in small handball have also been held. The main limiting factor in the further development of handball was football fields, whose administrations were reluctant to approve the holding of training sessions and matches. Big handball stopped being played officially in 1958. The only remaining handball, there was no longer any need to call it small handball, but simply - handball.

Modern Handball Yugoslavia played its first international small handball match in 1956 at the Tashmaidan Stadium in Belgrade against Sweden, the current world champions at the time. A draw was reached 6:6, and due to cloud cover the match was declared invalid. Yugoslav handball began to rise in the early 1970s reaching its height until 1990. At the time it was the most-winning handball team in the world, winning three medals at the Olympic Games, four at the World Championships, five at the Mediterranean Games, one at the Goodwill Games, three at the World Handball Cups and two at the Handball Super Leagues. The biggest successes are the gold medals at the 1972 and 1984 Olympic Games, as well as the gold medal at the 1986 World Championship.

Following the breakup The team ceased to exist after the split of Yugoslavia in June 1991. Three former Yugoslav republics have since gone on to win medals at major competitions: Croatia sixteen, Serbia four and Slovenia two. Croatia is considered one of the best teams in international handball, winning the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2003 World Championship, in addition to consistently earning major championship medals to this day (as of 2026).

Accomplishments Summer Olympics

YearRoundPosition 1936 didn't have indoor handball team 1972Final660012289+33 1976Fifth place game5th6501131112+19 1980Fifth place game6th6402155116+39 1984Final651014193+48 1988Bronze medal game6411143132+11 1992 Qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics but banned due to UN sanctionsTotalQualified: 6/6302424692542+120

World Championship

YearRoundPosition 1938 didn't have indoor handball team 1954 1958Main Round8th620410196+5 1961Preliminary Round9th20022932-3 1964Main Round6th622210296+6 1967Quarterfinal7th6402136110+26 1970Semifinal631211980+39 1974Semifinal650113497+37 1978Main Round5th641110896+12 1982Final7412183155+28 1986Final7700168145+23 1990Main Round4th7403169156+13 1993Qualified but Team Dissolved in 1992BannedTotalQualified: 11/11593551912491063+186

World Outdoor Championship 1955 IHF World Men's Outdoor Handball Championship - 5th place

Goodwill Games GamesRoundPosition 1986 MoscowDidn't Participate 1990 SeattleFinal2nd of 8Total0/10 Titles

Mediterranean Games

GamesRoundPosition 1967 TunisChampions1st of 4 1971 İzmirTournament canceled 1975 AlgiersChampions1st of 5 1979 SplitChampions1st of 7 1983 CasablancaChampions1st of 8 1987 LatakiaDidn't Participate 1991 AthensChampions1st of 8Total5/55 Titles

Other competitions EURO Tournaments World Cup (European Tournament) The World Cup was a handball tournament for men's national teams that was held from 1971 to 2010 in Sweden, partly in Norway in 1999 and partly in Germany in 2006. The event took place irregularly, most recently in even years, alternating with the Supercup tournament in Germany. The Norwegian oil company Statoil has been the sponsor since 2004, and the cup competition has since been called the Statoil World Cup. The World Cup was considered a mini European Cup because, in addition to hosts Sweden, the best seven teams from the previous World Cup which were all European were invited at times. Due to declining audience interest, the event was discontinued in 2010. EURO - World Cup Swedish TournamentRoundPosition EURO World Cup 1971 Stockholm Champions of 8 EURO World Cup 1974 StockholmChampions of 8 EURO World Cup 1979 Stockholm7th place7th of 8 EURO World Cup 1984 Stockholm3rd place of 8 EURO World Cup 1988 Stockholm5th place5th of 8 EURO World Cup 1992 StockholmRunner up of 8Total2/62 Titles EURO Supercup The Supercup was a handball tournament for men's national teams that was held every two years in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1979 to 2015 - since 1983 usually between the end of October and the beginning of November. The first tournament was held in December 1979, the second was played in early February 1981, the 1997 competition was postponed to March 1998. Previous Olympic champions, world champions and European champions were initially invited. Because of this high-caliber group of participants, it was sometimes referred to as the Mini European Cup. Most recently it took place alternating with the Statoil World Cup. The Supercup goes back to a suggestion by the then national coach Vlado Stenzel. It was held for the last time in 2015 due to a lack of spectator interest. EURO - Supercup German Tournament RoundPosition EURO Supercup 1979 Dortmund 4th place4th of 8 EURO Supercup 1981 Dortmund3rd place of 8 EURO Supercup 1983 Dortmund3rd placeof 8 EURO Supercup 1985 Dortmund5th place5th of 8 EURO Supercup 1987 Dortmund5th place5th of 8 EURO Supercup 1989 Dortmund4th place4th of 8 EURO Supercup 1991 Frankfurt6th place6th of 6Total0/70 Titles

Rivalries Team Yugoslavia had two major rivalries. The big one with team USSR and the other one with Eastern Germany team. Their clashes for medals at the Olympics Handball, World Championships and Mini EURO tournaments were epic from 1970 onwards. While at the Mediterranean Games handball the rivals that put the most resistance were team Spain and team Algeria although team Yugoslavia always managed to win the matches for gold medal collecting all the trophies.

Player statistics

Most appearances 100+ #NameMatchesYearsNationality1Hrvoje Horvat 231 CB CRO2Momir Rnić 217 P SRB3Goran Perkovac 192 OB CRO4Mile Isaković 190 W SRB5Veselin Vujović 183 OB MNE6Branislav Pokrajac 180 W SRB7Zlatan Arnautović 157 GK BIH8Slobodan Kuzmanovski 150 OB MKD9Pavle Jurina 140 OB CRO10Zdravko Rađenović 137 CB SRB11Mirko Bašić 133+ GK CRO12Abas Arslanagić 125 GK BIH13Zdravko Zovko 119 W CRO14Milan Kalina 100+ CB SRB15Tonči Peribonio 100+ GK CRO16Zlatko Saračević 100+ OB BIH17Zlatko Portner 98+ CB SRB

Top scorers 300+ #NameGoalsAverageYearsNationality1Veselin Vujović738 4.03 OB MNE2Mile Isaković734 3.86 W SRB3Hrvoje Horvat621 2.69 CB CRO4Branislav Pokrajac510 2.83 W SRB5Nedeljko Jovanović433 2.81 CB SRB6Momir Rnić411 1.89 P SRB7Slobodan Kuzmanovski400 2.67 OB MKD8Zdravko Rađenović369 2.69 CB SRB9Zlatko Portner355 3.62 CB SRB

Coaches Period RepublicNationality Coach 1951–1967 Ivan Snoj 1967 Irislav Dolenec 1967–1972 Vlado Stenzel 1974 Josip Milković 1975–1976 Ivan Snoj 1978 Zdravko Matulić 1979 Zlatko Žagmešter 1978–1980 Jezdimir Stanković 1980–1984 Branislav Pokrajac 1984–1986 Zoran Živković 1986–1988 Abas Arslanagić 1989–1991 Jezdimir Stanković

Squads

Succeeding national teams

TeamFederationHandball Federation of Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroatian Handball FederationHandball Federation of KosovoMacedonian Handball FederationHandball Federation of MontenegroHandball Federation of SerbiaHandball Federation of Slovenia Defunct

References