The Most Famous
HANDBALL PLAYERS from Romania
This page contains a list of the greatest Romanian Handball Players. The pantheon dataset contains 304 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 5
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the 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.
1. Gheorghe Gruia (1940 - 2015)
With an HPI of 50.08, Gheorghe Gruia is the most famous Romanian Handball Player. His biography has been translated into 16 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.
2. Ștefan Birtalan (1948 - )
With an HPI of 44.59, Ștefan Birtalan is the 2nd most famous Romanian Handball Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Ştefan Birtalan (born 25 September 1948) is a former 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 bronze medals.
3. Radu Voina (1950 - )
With an HPI of 37.75, Radu Voina is the 3rd most famous Romanian Handball Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Radu Voina (born 29 July 1950 in Șaeș, Mureș County) is a Romanian former handball player and current head coach.
4. Marian Cozma (1982 - 2009)
With an HPI of 36.34, Marian Cozma is the 4th 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.
5. Cristina Neagu (1988 - )
With an HPI of 36.17, Cristina Neagu is the 5th most famous Romanian Handball Player. Her biography has been translated into 27 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 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.
Pantheon has 5 people classified as handball players born between 1940 and 1988. Of these 5, 3 (60.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living handball players include Ștefan Birtalan, Radu Voina, and Cristina Neagu. The most famous deceased handball players include Gheorghe Gruia and Marian Cozma. As of April 2022, 1 new handball players have been added to Pantheon including Radu Voina.
Living Handball Players
Go to all Rankings
Ștefan Birtalan
1948 - Present
HPI: 44.59
Radu Voina
1950 - Present
HPI: 37.75
Cristina Neagu
1988 - Present
HPI: 36.17
