Athlete of the week
Handball player Cristina Neagu
Florin Orban, 26.03.2024, 16:24
Romanian women’s handball team CSM Bucharest for the fourth year running have advanced to the Champions League’s quarterfinals. Actually, CSM Bucharest have failed only once to prove their mettle in the league’s quarterfinals since 2016, that is in 2020.
In 2024, having come in 4th in the League’s Group A, CSM had no choice other than face, in a double-legged playoff tie, Slovenian opponents Krim Ljubljana. CSM had no problem securing a two-leg win, 30-24.
In Slovenia as well as in Bucharest, CSM’s top scorer was Cristina Neagu. In the first leg, away, Cristina scored 10 goals, while this past Sunday in Bucharest, she scored seven goals.
Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Cristina The Athlete of the Week.
Cristina Neagu was born in Bucharest on august 26, 1988. She made her debut with the School Sports Club number 5. In 2006, Cristina turned pro, playing for Rulmentul Brașov, only to be signed up by Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea later. We recall that with Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, in 2010, Cristina Neagu reached as far as the Champions League finals. When Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea was disbanded, Cristina Neagu was signed up by Buducnost Podgorica, the team with which she won the Champions League in 2015.
In 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018, the International Handball Federation designated Cristina Neagu the world’s best handballer. Cristina thus became the world’s first ever handball player to win the trophy four times. After the 2023 edition of the World Championship in December 2023, when the Romanian national team wasted the opportunity to qualify to the Olympic Games in Paris, Cristina Neagu announced her retirement from the national team.
As a national team handballer, Cristina Neagu’s record includes two bronze medals she won in 2010 at the European Championship jointly hosted by Denmark and Norway, and in 2015, at the World Championship in Denmark.
As part of the Champions League’s ongoing edition, the quarterfinal fixtures are on schedule for CSM Bucharest. On April 28, CSM will play a home game against French opponents Metz Handball. The return leg is scheduled on May 4, in Lorena, France. Metz Handball do not have a scintillating record in the Champions League, yet they are the title holders in the French championship. If they eliminate Metz Handball, CSM will yet again book their ticket in the Champions League’s final tournament, schedule in Budapest in early June.
