Martinovic revels into "a dream came true" to play at home at the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship

Every January, Croatia start to simmer. At a low heat, at first, then the intensity picks up and all the hopes and dreams are put into one team. The men’s senior national handball team, a world champion in 2003 and Olympic champion at Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004.

However, over the past few years, the European powerhouse has taken a step back, finishing 15th at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship and ninth at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship, without any hope of a medal.

Therefore, changes have been made and the first foreign coach in history, Dagur Sigurdsson, has assumed the position of head coach, with big changes in the squad, an interesting mix of experience from players like Domagoj Duvnjak, Luka Cindrić or Jakov Gojun, and the youth of Dominik Kuzmanović, Matej Mandić or Luka Lovre Klarica.

In between, Ivan Martinović, a towering 26-year-old right back, has emerged as one of the top weapons for Croatia, despite making his debut quite late in the senior team, in 2019, when he was already 21 years old.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Martinović first emerged on the big stage as a talented player at Fivers WAT Margareten. In the 2016/17 season, when he was only 19 years old, he was named as the rookie of the year in the Austrian league, which prompted a move in the Bundesliga, at VfL Gummersbach. 

And Croatia knew all about Martinović.

“When I was 17 years old, I got a call from Croatia, to play in the younger age categories teams. I was also eligible to play for Austria, you know the story probably, but I never thought about it and decided to play for Croatia,” says Martinović.

It proved to be a good decision, as just in a few years, he became a top player for the senior national team, featuring on the right back, in a team with some of the players he identified as idols when he was a boy.

“In 2010, the European Championship was played in Austria, and Croatia won the silver medal. I remember that I saw Domagoj Duvnjak there, and I was really impressed, I loved the way he was playing. So, being here now, in the same team with him, representing Croatia, is just something out of this world, something fantastic. Him, he is not only a good player, but a fantastic character, so for me, it is amazing to be in this position,” adds Martinović.

The right back is in his seventh season in the Bundesliga at club level, having played for Gummersbach, Hannover-Burgdorf, Melsungen and now for Rhein-Neckar Löwen. In four of those seasons, he scored at least 150 goals. In total, he has 820 goals for his clubs. And slowly, but surely, he became one of the top right backs in the world.

Now, a new challenge awaits at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, one which will be crucial for Croatia’s ambitions to return on the biggest of stages in men’s handball, something that an entire handball-mad country awaits.

The world handball flagship competition returns to Croatia for the first time in 16 years. The last time the country has hosted it, they secured the silver medals, conceding a 19:24 loss in the final against France, with a generation led by the legend himself, Ivano Balic, when Duvnjak was still only a hugely talented youngster.

Now, Croatia will co-host the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, alongside Denmark and Norway, and the fans in Zagreb could see their team as long as the semi-finals, as one of the two matches deciding the finalists will be played in the Arena Zagreb.

“It is fantastic, a dream came true. To be able to represent the country at home, in front of our own fans, is something that every player dreams of. Of course, there will be nerves, every player will be nervous. For me, these will be positive emotions, of course, because it is something fantastic. It will be a difficult competition, but I really hope we will go as far as possible,” adds Martinović.

For starters, Croatia will play in Group H, in Zagreb, alongside Egypt, Argentina and Bahrain, three teams from three different continents, in what shapes up to be a well-balanced group. Provided Croatia finish on the top three places, they will face three of the four teams in Group G in the main round – Slovenia, Iceland, Cuba and Cape Verde.

Therefore, a path towards a potential quarter-final is open and for Croatia that would be an exciting prospect, meaning that they will be able to secure their best finish since 2019, when they ended up on the sixth position. It will be a big reset, especially after Croatia missed out on a quarter-finals berth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when close losses against Slovenia and Spain meant that the European side finished 11th, in Sigurdsson's debut at a major international competition.

Martinović hopes that being at home – with the added pressure – will be key for Croatia’s lengthy journey in the competition, aiming to secure his first medal in a major international competition with the national team, where he scored 238 goals in 48 matches so far.

“Since I have been playing in the juniors and youth teams for Croatia, I was dreaming about this. Now it is close, I can feel it, so I think it will be an amazing competition for all of us. I hope we bring everybody some joy and some good results and hopefully we will go in the final rounds,” says Martinović.

Indeed, the pressure for a team which lives handball to the fullest will be high. This might arguably be Duvnjak’s last edition of the World Championship, the 10th the centre back plays in. Therefore, everybody wants to honour the most capped player and the player with the largest number of goals for Croatia with a medal.

“It will be tough, but we will do everything for it,” concludes the right back.