page_title: Sport in France
section_title: Handball
hierarchical_section_title: Sport in France / Handball
caption_attribution_description: English: Thierry Omeyer Français&#160;: Thierry Omeyer
context_page_description: Sport in France plays an important role in French society, which is reflected in its popularity among the French people and the nation's strong sporting history. Various types of sports are played and followed in France, the biggest one being Cycling, also one of the most popular, is football.
context_section_description: There were 470,590 licensed handball players in France as of 2012.
  The France national handball team is the current double reigning Olympic Champion and European champion. The team also won the World Championships in 1995, 2001, 2009, 2011 and 2015, and the European Championships in 2006, 2010 and 2014.
  Men's national professional competitions are supervised by the Ligue nationale de handball with the top division being the Championnat de France de handball. Montpellier Agglomération Handball is the most successful team in French first division history with 13 titles from 1995 to 2011. The team is also the only French team to have won the EHF Champions League in 2003.
  The France women's national handball team won the 2003 World Women's Handball Championship.
  Women's main national professional competition is the Championnat de France de handball féminin. Metz Handball is the most successful team in French first division history with 17 titles from 1989 to 2011. No French team has reached the semi-finals at the EHF Women's Champions League so far.
caption: Thierry Omeyer (goalkeeper) World, Olympic, and European handball champion
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