Croatia Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Croatia
Wondering what sports the Croatians like to play?
Discover everything about the most popular sports in Croatia in this post. ⚽️
The Most Popular Croatian Sports
Find below Croatia national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Football |
| 2 | Basketball |
| 3 | Handball |
| 4 | Water polo |
| 5 | Tennis |
| 6 | Shooting |
| 7 | Sailing |
| 8 | Rowing |
| 9 | Gymnastics |
So there you have them, the most popular sports in Croatia! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Croatia.
What is the National Sport of Croatia?
The national sport of Croatia is football. Even though no Croatian club has ever won the UEFA Champions League, the national team is the pride of the country, with excellent players like Luka Modrić or Ivan Perišić. Their most recent success is the best, finishing second at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Learn More About Croatia Popular Sports
Croatia is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, and it is bordered by Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Its capital city is Zagreb, which counts more than 790,000 inhabitants (but more than 1,153,000 if you include the metropolitan area).
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Croatian popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Football
The most popular sport in Croatia is by far football.
Generally speaking, football is the most popular sport on the planet, and the same goes for Croatia. The major pride of the country is the national team, which finished third at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and more recently finished second at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Their captain, Luka Modrić, was awarded the Ballon d’Or, the best player of the World Cup, winner of the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award, and Best FIFA Men’s player in 2018. He is the most successful Croatian football player in history.
Number of Football licensed players in Croatia: 118,000
Famous Croatian Football players: Luka Modrić, Ivan Perišić, Domagoj Vida, Ante Rebić, Mateo Kovačić, Dejan Lovren, Joško Gvardiol, Andrej Kramarić, Nikola Vlašić, Marcelo Brozović
Basketball
The second most popular sport in Croatia is basketball.
The Croatian basketball team is not to be trifled with. They won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympic basketball tournament, a bronze medal at the 1994 World Championship, and bronze medals at EuroBasket 1993 and 1995. On top of that, they also won the EuroLeague 5 times.
Besides, there were a few Croatian players, Krešimir Ćosić, Dino Rađa, and Toni Kukoč, who were among the first foreigners to ever succeed in the NBA, in the United States.
Famous Croatian Basketball players: Dražen Petrović, Krešimir Ćosić, Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa, Aleksandar Petrović, Stojko Vranković, Andro Knego, Peja Stojaković
Handball
The third most popular sport in Croatia is handball. The independence of Croatia played a huge role in developing sports in the country. It was after this that teams like the national handball team started to rise and see international success.
This team has been competing since 1991, which is the year of the independence, and won the 2003 World Championship, and finished second in 1995 and in 2005, and third in 2009 and in 2013.
Ivano Balić is probably the most prominent Croatian handball player, as he won the world handball player of the year award in 2003 and in 2006. Domagoj Duvnjak also won this award in 2013.
Famous Croatian Handball players: Ivano Balić, Domagoj Duvnjak, Igor Vori, Luka Cindrić, Lino Červar, Jakov Gojun, Venio Losert, Mirza Džomba, Zlatko Horvat, Mirko Alilović, Marko Kopljar
Water polo
The fourth most popular sport in Croatia is water polo.
Similarly to handball and many other sports in the country, the Croatian water polo team started competing after the independence of the country, and earned worldwide success since then: they took the gold medal at the 2007 and 2017 editions of the World Championships, and finished third 3 times and second once.
Croatian clubs are also vastly successful, especially Mladost (from Zagreb) and Jug (from Dubrovnik), which both won the European Champions League many times.
Famous Croatian Water polo players: Maro Joković, Andro Bušlje, Marko Bijač, Ivica Tucak, Luka Lončar, Josip Vrlić, Luka Bukić, Paulo Obradović, Marko Macan, Sandro Sukno
Tennis
The fifth most popular Croatian sport is tennis.
It took the Croatian tennis team a year after independence to rise up. Since then, they won three Olympic medals: in 1992 (Goran Ivanišević in men’s singles, and Goran Ivanišević and Goran Prpić in men’s doubles) and in 2004 (Ivan Ljubičić and Mario Ančić in men’s doubles).
On top of that, they won the Davis Cup title in 2005 and in 2018, and the country has hosted two international tennis tournaments: the ATP Vegeta Croatia Open, and the Zagreb Indoors.
Famous Croatian Tennis players: Borna Ćorić, Goran Ivanišević, Marin Čilić, Ivan Ljubičić, Mario Ančić, Ivo Karlović, Donna Vekić, Iva Majoli, Petra Martić, Ivan Dodig, Mirjana Lučić, Mate Pavić
Shooting
The sixth most popular sport in Croatia is shooting. Believe it or not, shooting is quite popular in Croatia, and this is again vastly due to how successful some Croatian sports shooters are, on a worldwide scale.
Giovanni Cernogoraz and Josip Glasnović are probably the best in their discipline, having both won the gold medal at the Olympic Games (2012 for the first one, and 2016 for the other).
For women, Snježana Pejčić has also been quite successful, having won the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, on top of many European championships.
Famous Croatian Shooting players: Giovanni Cernogoraz, Bojan Đurković, Anton Glasnović, Petar Gorša, Snježana Pejčić, Josip Glasnović
Sailing
The seventh most popular sport in Croatia is sailing. Geographically speaking, the peculiarity of Croatia is that while it is a relatively small country, it boasts itself with an incredibly long coastline of 5,835 km / 3,626 mi.
Because of this, sailing is often practiced in the country. Locals and tourists both enjoy the sport, but professional sailors have seen wide success internationally, again.
The best of them are probably Šime Fantela and Igor Marenić, who won gold at the 2016 Olympic Games, won the World Championships in 2009 and in 2016 and won the European Championships in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
Famous Croatian Sailing players: Šime Fantela, Igor Marenić, Tonči Stipanović, Tina Mihelić, Enia Ninčević, Romana Župan, Pavle Kostov, Petar Cupać, Ivan Kljaković-Gašpić
Rowing
The eighth most popular sport in Croatia is rowing. There are not one, not two, but three popular water sports in Croatia, with water polo, sailing, and now rowing.
This may sound like a broken record, but the Croatian rowing team is also very successful! Maybe Croatia is just one of the best countries to become a professional athlete.
In various rowing disciplines, the country has won 7 Olympic Games, 17 World Championships, and 17 European championship medals, since 1991. What a way to celebrate independence.
Famous Croatian Rowing players: Nikša Skelin, Siniša Skelin, Martin Sinković, Valent Sinković, David Šain, Damir Martin, Igor Boraska, Tihomir Franković, Krešimir Čuljak, Igor Francetić
Gymnastics
The ninth most popular sport in Croatia is gymnastics. Gymnastics is made of many disciplines, like floor, vault, pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bars. There are a few differences between men’s competitive events and women’s since the disciplines are different (women have uneven bars and balance beams for instance).
In Croatia, the most notable achievements in gymnastics have been made by Filip Ude (won the silver medal on the pommel horse at the 2008 Olympic Games), Robert Seligman (won bronze at the 2008 European championships and silver at the 2018 edition), and Marijo Možnik (won silver at the 2012 European championships and gold at the 2015 edition).
Famous Croatian Gymnastics players: Filip Ude, Marijo Možnik, Tin Srbić, Robert Seligman
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Croatia. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.
In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:
More Sport Facts!
Loved these Croatia sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?
Then check out these posts:
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