BIOGRAPHY
Olympic and world champion Igor Vori remains in the history books as one of the most successful Croatian handball players. His professional career took off in his hometown Zagreb in 1997, a club where he would eventually return three more times during his lengthy career.
Italy was his first destination abroad in 2001 and he stayed there until 2003, playing for Alpi Pallamano Prato and then joining Pallamano Conversano. The line player quickly became one of the must-watch players on the international stage and had stints at some of the biggest handball clubs in Europe, such as FC Barcelona (Spain), HSV Hamburg (Germany) and Paris Saint-Germain (France). He won national titles with all three clubs, but only managed to clinch the coveted EHF Champions League trophy with Hamburg in 2013.
An impressive force both in attack and defence, the Croatian player made his debut for the national team in 2001, but had to wait two more years for his first major international success — gold at the 2003 IHF World Championship. Another gold medal was on the way, as Igor Vori and his team became Olympic champions in 2004.
Despite being named in the All-star Team at the EHF EURO in 2008 and 2010, he missed out on winning gold with Croatia, but instead celebrated two silver medals (2008 and 2010) and one bronze medal (2012) during his career.
Four years after retiring from playing handball, Igor Vori made a surprise return in March 2022 to play for Füchse Berlin until the end of the season.
Towards the end of his career, the line player turned to coaching and joined Croatia as assistant coach to Lino Cervar between 2018 and 2020. He then had brief stints managing Zagreb, Croatia’s under-21 team and TV Großwallstadt before taking over the helm at MRK Sesvete in 2023.
