BIOGRAPHY
Didier Dinart was born in Guadeloupe and as a teenager looked up to the likes of Jackson Richardson. It was in a bid to follow in Richardson’s footsteps that he jumped on a plane, aged 16, to join Dijon in pursuit of a handball career in mainland France.
That dream quickly became a reality; after three seasons in Dijon Dinart joined Montpellier and began focusing on defence. That focus helped him and Montpellier win the EHF Champions League in 2003, just before he moved to Ciudad Real - a club where he would win a further three Champions League titles and help put the side on the map. In 2013 Dinart was named the best defender of the first 20 years of the Champions League.
In this period, Dinart also became a key part of the French defence on the national team. He won his first World Championship title at the age of 24, in 2001, and would go on to add two more world titles, two Olympic titles, and two EHF EURO titles to his list of achievements.
Dinart left Ciudad Real in 2011 towards the end of his career, with one season at Atlético Madrid and one at Paris Saint-Germain before beginning the next phase of his handball life, as a coach.
Dinart joined the French national team as assistant to Eric Quintin and leading the national side’s youth squads. In 2016, he became head coach, succeeding Claude Onesta after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and quickly made an impact as France won the 2017 World Championship. Dinart was named IHF Coach of the Year for 2016 and again for 2018, after France won bronze at both the EHF EURO 2018 and 2019 World Championship.
Since 2023, Dinart has coached French club US Ivry.
