BIOGRAPHY
A flying wing who soared from humble beginnings in the suburbs of Paris to the top of the podium in the premier competitions at both club and international level.
Born in Ivry-sur-Seine, Luc Abalo came through the ranks at local club US Ivry Handball, making his debut as a teenager in the late 1990s and remaining with the club until 2008, by which time he had won his first French league title and was already three years into his international career.
A move to Spain followed, where he reached the pinnacle of the club game with BM Ciudad Real, taking the EHF Champions League title in 2009 under the stewardship of Talant Dujshebaev, beating THW Kiel in the final.
He left the renamed Atletico Madrid in 2012 for a return to France and the start of eight years at Paris Saint-Germain where, despite countless domestic honours, he never got his hands on the ultimate European prize again.
However, silverware at national team level continued to flow as part of a France squad unlike any that had come before it; a gold medal at the Men’s EHF EURO 2006 was the first of three European titles – in 2010 and 2014 he even took a place in the All-star Team – alongside World Championship wins in 2009, 2011 and on home soil in 2017.
Abalo was key for France in their gold medal triumphs at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, before a third Olympic title at the 2020 Tokyo games in 2021 took his major international title count to nine, though he picked up minor medals in a further four championships.
In all, Abalo played 289 times for France, scoring 859 times which puts him seventh in France’s all-time top scorer list.
The autumn of his career took him to Norway and Japan to star for Elverum Handball and Zeekstar Tokyo, respectively, before bowing out in 2023.
