Nikola Blažičko

Nikola Blažičko (born 13 September 1977) is a former Croatian handball goalkeeper and co-trainer at Nettelstedt-Lübbecke.

Early life
Blažičko grew up in Rijeka. His parents Duško and Nada were also handball players, so him becoming a handball player himself was inevitable.

Career
Blažičko began his career in his hometown club Zamet in Rijeka. Soon he became a pivotal player and 1st goalkeeper at the club. In 2000 Blažičko moved to Split for 2 seasons before returning to Zamet. In 2004 he went to Croatian powerhouse Zagreb. With Zagreb Blažičko got to the finals of EHF Cup Winners' Cup in 2005.

The same year he played for the national team in World Championship in Tunis and Mediterranean Games in Almería where Croatia finished second. He also played at the 2006 European Championship in Switzerland where Croatia finished fourth losing the third-place match to Denmark 32:27.

Since 2007 he's been playing in TuS Nettelstedt-Lübbecke in Germany.

In March 2011 he was called up by Slavko Goluža to play for Croatia in the Euro-qualifiers. Unfortunately in June the same year Blažičko got injured losing his spot in the national team and being replaced with Venio Losert.

In 2015 Blažičko got another injury and didn't play for the vast majority of the season. At the end of the season his club Nettelstedt-Lübbecke was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga.

Honours

 * Zamet
 * Croatian Handball Championship U-18
 * Third (1): 1994
 * Croatian Handball Championship U-19
 * Winner (1): 1996
 * First B League
 * Winner (1): 1995-96
 * First A League
 * Third (2): 1997–98, 1998–99
 * Croatian Cup
 * Runner-up(1): 2000


 * Split
 * First A League
 * Third (1): 2000-01


 * Zagreb
 * First League
 * Winner (2): 2004–05, 2005–06
 * Croatian Handball Cup
 * Winner (2): 2005, 2006
 * EHF Cup Winners' Cup
 * Runner-up (1): 2005


 * PSG
 * Coupe de France
 * Winner (1): 2007


 * TuS Nettelstedt-Lübbecke
 * 2nd Bundesliga
 * Winner (1): 2016-17


 * Croatia
 * 2005 World Championship in Tunis - 2nd
 * 2005 Mediterranean Games in Almería - 2nd
 * 2006 European Championship in Switzerland - 4th


 * Individual
 * Best goalkeeper at Croatian Handball Championship U-19 - 1996
 * RK Zamet hall of fame - 2015

Orders

 * Ribbon of an Order of the Croatian Trefoil.png Order of the Croatian Trefoil - 2005