Nikola Karabatic
Katrine Lunde
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Katrine Lunde leads 2 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Nikola Karabatic at #1 and Katrine Lunde at #4.
The case for Nikola Karabatic
The most decorated player the sport has produced and its nearest thing to a consensus choice. Across 22 seasons Karabatic won three Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012 and 2020), four World Championships (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017) and three European Championships (2006, 2010 and 2014) with France, plus the Champions League with three different clubs - Montpellier, THW Kiel and Barcelona. He was named IHF World Player of the Year three times, in 2007, 2014 and 2016, a men's record he shares with Mikkel Hansen. Born in Nis to a Yugoslav international goalkeeper who later coached in France, he stood close to two metres and could play either left back or centre back at the highest level, which is why coaches shifted him between the two hardest backcourt roles without losing anything. He also defended, unusually for a player of his offensive value. He retired after the Paris 2024 Olympics with more than 300 caps and a trophy cabinet nobody in handball has matched.
The case for Katrine Lunde
The most decorated goalkeeper in handball and, by trophy count, arguably the most decorated player of any kind. Lunde won Olympic gold with Norway in 2008, 2012 and 2024, and took a medal at five consecutive Games from Beijing to Paris, where she played the final at 44. She has three world titles, in 2011, 2015 and 2021, and a stack of European Championships from the Norwegian dynasty that has now won a record ten EHF Euro crowns. At club level she won the Champions League seven times with three different employers: Viborg in 2009 and 2010, Gyor in 2013 and 2014, and Vipers Kristiansand in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Her method is positional rather than acrobatic - she reads the shooter's hips, plants early and takes up an enormous amount of visual space - and her record in 7-metre duels has decided finals for two decades. Her twin sister Kristine played alongside her for Norway.