Gabriella Ibolya Szűcs (born 31 August 1984) is a Romanian-Hungarian professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player for

HC Dunărea Brăila HC Dunărea Brăila is a women's handball club from Brăila, Romania, that competes in the Liga Națională and the European League (formerly known as EHF Cup). Kits Team Current squad The squad for the 2022/23 season. ;Goalkeeper ...

and the

Romanian national team The Romania national football team ( ro, Echipa națională de fotbal a României) represents Romania in international men's football competition and is administered by the Romanian Football Federation ( ro, Federația Română de Fotbal), also ...

. Born in the

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People ...

to Hungarian parents, Szűcs holds both Hungarian and Romanian citizenship. Initially a Hungarian international, she has represented Romania from 2015.

Career

Born in Oradea in 1984, her family moved to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

before the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

and settled in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

. Her father was a professional footballer, whilst her mother was a handball player, which could have a great influence on that Gabriella started to practice various sports since a very young age. First she tried

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coord ...

later switched to folk dance. In the school she was talented in many sports including basketball and football, but finally she has chosen handball. She started to play handball at the age of eleven, and whilst in school she already had seven trainings a week. At the age of fourteen she was signed by DVSC, where she spent the next ten seasons. During this time she developed to a quality left back both on domestic and international level. With the Hungarian national team she won bronze medal on the European Championship in 2004, and a year later on the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

as well. She was also member of the team which finished fourth on the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. In 2009, she moved to Romanian top club

CS Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public s ...

, where she spent two season before re-joined her old club DVSC. Her second spell at the club, however, was cut short after DVSC faced heavy financial problems and let many of their key players to go to axe their wage budget. Szűcs remained by the club until December 2011, when she moved to the Romanian Championship again, this time to

HC Zalău HC Zalău is a women's handball club from Zalău, Romania, that plays in the Romanian Women's Handball League. On domestic level HC Zalau won three league titles (2001,2004,2005) and Romanian Cup once in 2003. In Europe HC Zalau won the Women's ...

, where she joined her former coach

Gheorghe Tadici Gheorghe Tadici (born 27 March 1952 in Piatra Neamț) is a Romanian handball coach in charge of the Romanian top division side HC Zalău. In 2012 he also became head coach of the Romania women's national handball team, Romanian women's national han ...

Personal life

She has a younger sister, Nikolett, who is also a professional handball player.

Achievements

: **''Bronze Medalist'': 2005 * European Championship: **''Bronze Medalist'': 2004 * Youth European Championship: **''Bronze Medalist'': 2001 * Junior World Championship: **''Silver Medalist'': 2003 *Junior European Championship: **''Silver Medalist'': 2002 *

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

: **''Bronze Medalist'': 2001, 2008 * Romanian Championship: **''Winner'': 2009, 2010, 2014 **''Silver Medalist'': 2013, 2015 *Romanian Cup: **''Winner'': 2013, 2014, 2015 *Romanian Supercup: **''Winner'': 2013, 2014, 2015 *

EHF Champions League The Men's EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the me ...

: **''Finalist'': 2010 **''Semifinalist'': 2009 *

EHF Cup The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previ ...

: **''Finalist'': 2012 **''Semifinalist'': 2006, 2013

References

External links

Career statistics at Worldhandball
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Szucs, Gabriella 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Oradea Romanian female handball players Hungarian female handball players Handball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Hungary Olympic handball players for Romania CS Minaur Baia Mare (women's handball) players Expatriate handball players Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea (handball) players Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent