The Most Famous

HANDBALL PLAYERS from Romania

Icon of occuation in country

This page contains a list of the greatest Romanian Handball Players. The pantheon dataset contains 420 Handball Players, 5 of which were born in Romania. This makes Romania the birth place of the 14th most number of Handball Players behind Iceland, and Netherlands.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Romanian Handball Players of all time. This list of famous Romanian Handball Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Romanian Handball Players.

Photo of Gheorghe Gruia

1. Gheorghe Gruia (1940 - 2015)

With an HPI of 50.97, Gheorghe Gruia is the most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Gheorghe Gruia Marinescu (October 2, 1940 – December 9, 2015) was a Romanian handball player, coach and sports official. Born in Bucharest, Gruia won the gold medal in the 1964 World Handball Championship and the 1970 World Championship. In the 1972 Summer Olympics he won the bronze medal with the Romanian team and become the top scorer of the competition with 37 goals. He played as a right back and spent his entire professional career with Steaua Bucharest. The International Handball Federation named him in 1992 "The Greatest Handball Player of All Times". Gruia resided in Mexico City, Mexico since 1978, where he worked as a coach and an official in this sport and is credited with popularizing this sport in the country. He died on December 9, 2015, in Mexico City following a heart attack. Gruia is considered the 'father of handball' in Mexico. His daughter, Andreea, is a Mexican former telenovela actress who is known for playing in Spanish language telenovelas on Televisa.

Photo of Ștefan Birtalan

2. Ștefan Birtalan (1948 - 2024)

With an HPI of 46.43, Ștefan Birtalan is the 2nd most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Ştefan Birtalan (25 September 1948 – 27 May 2024) was a Romanian handball player, coach and sports official. Birtalan was one of the best players of his time and was named the World Player of the Year in 1974, 1976 and 1977. He spent most of his club career with Steaua București, winning with them 12 Romanian championships and the European Champions Cup in 1977. He also won the world title in 1970 and 1974, becoming the top scorer at the 1974 tournament with 43 goals. He participated in the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics winning one silver and 2 bronze medals.

Photo of Radu Voina

3. Radu Voina (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 45.45, Radu Voina is the 3rd most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Radu Voina (born 29 July 1950) is a Romanian former handball player and current head coach.

Photo of Cristian Gațu

4. Cristian Gațu (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 42.62, Cristian Gațu is the 4th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Cristian Gațu (born 20 August 1945) is a retired Romanian handball player. He earned 212 caps with the national team, winning the world title in 1970 and 1974 and medalling at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. After retiring from competitions he became a coach and sports official, appointed as Secretary of State for Youth and Sports in 1991–1993 and President of the Romanian Handball Federation in 1997–2014.

Photo of Cristina Neagu

5. Cristina Neagu (b. 1988)

With an HPI of 39.49, Cristina Neagu is the 5th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Cristina Georgiana Neagu (Romanian pronunciation: [krisˈtina ˈne̯aɡu]; born 26 August 1988) is a Romanian professional handballer who plays as a left back for CSM București and formerly played for the Romanian national team. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Neagu is the only female handball player in history to win four IHF World Player of the Year awards (in 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018). She also won the EHF Player of the Year award in 2017 and 2018 (a record). She has been selected to the All-EHF Champions League All-Star Team seven times (2015–18 and 2020–22). A prolific goalscorer, Neagu is the European Championship's all-time leader in goals scored (303). She was the 2015 World Championship top-scorer and was named MVP of the tournament. She also finished as the top scorer of the EHF Champions League in the 2014–15, 2017–18 and 2021–22 seasons. Neagu was given the award of Cetățean de onoare ("Honorary Citizen") of the city of Bucharest in 2017.

Photo of Marian Cozma

6. Marian Cozma (1982 - 2009)

With an HPI of 36.31, Marian Cozma is the 6th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Marian Cozma (8 September 1982 – 8 February 2009) was a Romanian handball player. He was born in Tei, Bucharest and died in Veszprém, Hungary after being attacked and stabbed in a nightclub fight. During his career he played for HC Dinamo București and KC Veszprém and he was also a member of the Romanian national handball team.

Photo of Gheorghe Dogărescu

7. Gheorghe Dogărescu (1960 - 2020)

With an HPI of 35.87, Gheorghe Dogărescu is the 7th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Gheorghe Dogărescu (15 May 1960 − 18 August 2020) was a Romanian handball player who won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics. He spent most of his club career with Dinamo București, reaching with them the final of the 1981 EHF Cup Winners' Cup.

Photo of Mihaela Ciobanu

8. Mihaela Ciobanu (b. 1973)

With an HPI of 29.55, Mihaela Ciobanu is the 8th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Mihaela Ciobanu (born 30 January 1973) is a retired Romanian-born Spanish handball goalkeeper, who played on the Spanish women's national team. She was part of the Spanish team at the 2008 European Women's Handball Championship, where the Spanish team reached the final, after defeating Germany in the semifinal. She competed at the 2011 World Women's Handball Championship in Brazil, where the Spanish team placed third. She took also part at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where Spanish team won the bronze medal, after defeating South Korea. In that game Ciobanu saved four seven-meter penalty shots. On October 1, 2018, she signed a 2-year contract with CSM București for the position of goalkeeping coach.

Photo of Komail Mahfoodh

9. Komail Mahfoodh (b. 1992)

With an HPI of 0.00, Komail Mahfoodh is the 9th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  His biography has been translated into different languages.

Komail Ali Mahfoodh (Arabic: كميل علي محفوظ. born 28 April 1992) is a Bahraini handball player for Al-Najma and the Bahraini national team. He participated at the 2017 World Men's Handball Championship and at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics.

Photo of Gabriella Szűcs

10. Gabriella Szűcs (b. 1984)

With an HPI of 0.00, Gabriella Szűcs is the 10th most famous Romanian Handball Player.  Her biography has been translated into different languages.

Gabriella Ibolya Szűcs (born 31 August 1984) is a Romanian-Hungarian professional handball player for HC Dunărea Brăila and the Romanian national team. Born in the Socialist Republic of Romania to Hungarian parents, Szűcs holds both Hungarian and Romanian citizenship. Initially a Hungarian international, she has represented Romania from 2015.

People

Pantheon has 10 people classified as Romanian handball players born between 1940 and 1992. Of these 10, 6 (60.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Romanian handball players include Radu Voina, Cristian Gațu, and Cristina Neagu. The most famous deceased Romanian handball players include Gheorghe Gruia, Ștefan Birtalan, and Marian Cozma. As of April 2024, 5 new Romanian handball players have been added to Pantheon including Cristian Gațu, Gheorghe Dogărescu, and Mihaela Ciobanu.

Living Romanian Handball Players

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Deceased Romanian Handball Players

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Newly Added Romanian Handball Players (2024)

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Overlapping Lives

Which Handball Players were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Handball Players since 1700.