2024 has been the year which saw two of the all-time greats in men’s handball – Nikola Karabatic and Mikkel Hansen – finish their careers, after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Now, another all-time great, this time in women’s handball, has announced her retirement, as Cristina Neagu will bow out after the end of the season.

Neagu, who turned 36 years old this August, had already announced her retirement from international handball at the end of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, where her appearances have been limited by an injury, but now will finish her playing career once the season is over.

The Romanian left back is the only player to have won the IHF Female World Player of the Year award four times, clinching the trophy in 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018, with exquisite performances, which helped Romania secure a bronze medal at the 2015 IHF Women’s World Championship and the bronze medal at the EHF EURO 2010.

“I decided that this is my last season as a player. I do not know if there is a single reason, I think this is a moment which comes in any player’s career. There have been plenty of difficult moments, plenty of fantastic moments, I have spent nearly four years outside the court and I have learnt a lot,” said Neagu for Romanian TV station PROTV, where she announced her retirement in prime-time.

She first exhibited her skill at the 2006 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, when she secured the MVP title, helping Romania secure a bronze medal. One year later, when she was only 19 years old, she made her debut at the IHF Women’s World Championship, being the X-factor for a Romania team which narrowly missed out on the bronze medal, conceding a loss against Germany.

The left back featured sixth time at the IHF Women’s World Championship, being the MVP at Denmark 2015, as well as the top goal scorer of the competition, when Romania secured the bronze medal. In six appearances in the world handball flagship competition, Neagu scored 250 goals.

She is also the all-time top scorer at the EHF EURO, with 303 goals, being the All-Star left back four times in the continental competition, in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2022, as well as the top goal scorer in 2010.

“My initial plan was to retire when I was 32 years old, but with all the injuries I had, I added some more years. I have no regrets, I do not feel sorry. I do not want the fans to feel bad, I want to enjoy every match with them,” added Neagu.

Neagu’s career has been marred by injuries. First, in 2009, she was close to retire altogether, due to a shoulder injury. After a surgery in the United States of America, the left back returned after two years, only to suffer a devastating knee injury, which saw her sidelined for nine months.

Returning for Buducnost, her only club outside of Romania, Neagu bounced back and won the EHF Champions League Women for the first and last time in 2015, then returned to her home city, București, where she has been playing for CSM since 2017.

In 2018, she suffered yet another anterior cruciate ligament tear while playing for Romania at the EHF EURO, but came back in fantastic shape, becoming the third player in history to reach the 1000-goal milestone in the EHF Champions League Women, after Anita Gorbicz and Jovanka Radicevic.

“Since 2008, I have been playing with a pain in my shoulder. My knees are swelling after each match, I have pain there too. But I will continue moving, because my body needs it. I don’t know if I continue in handball, as a coach or anything, I need a break first,” concluded Neagu.