Neagu’s last dance ends in teary farewell

The all-time scorer of the EHF Champions League Women played her last match on Sunday, when CSM Bucuresti, her hometown team, were eliminated by Team Esbjerg in the quarter-finals for the third time in the last four seasons.

Neagu, who won the EHF Champions League Women with Buducnost in 2015, will surely retain her status as one of the greatest players ever to feature in the competition, having scored 1,232 goals, one of the four members of the “Club of 1,000”, alongside Jovanka Radicevic, Andrea Lekic and Anita Gorbicz.

“It is the strongest competition in Europe. Every team and every player want to perform here. During the years, the format has changed, but everyone wants the trophy and the teams are preparing every week for the matches here,” said Neagu about the competition in which she scored the largest number of goals in history, before the first clash of the tie against Esbjerg.

There, Neagu was once again crucial for CSM, scoring 10 of her side’s 52 goals and delivering more quintessential assists. But as the final whistle blew after the 26:22 loss in the second leg of the quarter-finals, Neagu was reduced to tears.

She was hugged by members of the CSM staff and teammates, who told eurohandball.com before the matches against Esbjerg that this tie would also be a special one, due to Neagu’s impeding retirement, with Elizabeth Omoregie adding that “this group will also play for Cristina.”

Yet, the dream evaded the Romanian left back once more, with another roller-coaster season ending for CSM in tears, as history repeated itself against Esbjerg.

Once again, she did not make it to the EHF FINAL4, failing to play for CSM at least once in the business end of the competition where she reigned supreme, with the Romanian champions being eliminated in the quarter-finals in six of the seven seasons Neagu played for them, with another one being cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Winning the EHF Champions League in 2015 was an exciting moment, a huge achievement for me, it was the first title won at such a high level and it was something I have always dreamt about,” said Neagu in her installment of the “This is Me” series, in September 2023.

The 36-year-old left back had seven seasons, including the latest one, scoring in triple digits, having played for Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea, Buducnost and CSM București in the EHF Champions League.

Scoring-wise, her best season was 2022/23, when she had 118 goals for CSM. However, she never reached the EHF FINAL4 with the Romanian side, where she has been playing since 2018, missing out each time in the quarter-finals.

Plagued by injuries, Neagu used the constant setbacks — one shoulder injury and two torn knee ligaments — as a motivation to become even stronger and establish herself as one of the best players to have ever appeared on the court.

“Of course, there were setbacks; many do not know that I had over 20 painkiller shots in my knee just to keep going after the comeback, it was another tough moment. But I did not tell you these stories, which are definitely not nice to hear, just for the sake of it.

I love handball. I love what I am doing, this is the beauty of the sport. Because you can be back after an injury, you can try to win again, you can be on the court and enjoy yourself and try to win titles once again," added Neagu.

The Romanian left back also tops the all-time scoring list for the EHF EURO, with 303 goals, having won a bronze medal in 2010 with the Romanian squad.

And as she proudly stated, it was never about records, goals and titles: “I think this is the most important thing. I would not say it is a legacy, but it is one of the reasons I am now here. It is not about the number of titles I won, or how many goals I scored in my career. It is about inspiring others, helping them to learn that they can achieve everything if they work hard and dream about big things.”

Photos © Raluca Malnasi (main), Philipp Guelland/EHF archives & Axel Heimken/kolektiff (in-text), galleries — as indicated