RRI Sports Club – Handballer Cornel Oţelea

Cornel Oțelea was the only Romanian handballer to win three separate World Championship trophies

Florin Orban, 27.02.2025, 13:45

This January, the only Romanian handball player to win the world title three times passed away. Cornel Oţelea died aged 84, after an impressive career as a player and coach. The announcement was made by the club where he spent most of his life, namely Steaua Bucharest Army Sports Club. Here, Cornel Oţelea performed as an athlete, coach and commander.

Cornel Oţelea was born November 19, 1940, in Şeica Mare, Sibiu County (center). At the age of 18, he was already playing in the 11-man handball team of the army club, at the time called CCA (the Central Army House). In 1961, the club changed its name to Steaua Bucharest, and around that time, handball switched from fielding 11-player teams to 7-player teams. Romania too was one of the nations that established themselves in the new discipline from the very beginning. At the 1961 World Championship, hosted by West Germany, Romania, with Oţelea in the lineup, won first place. In the final held in Dortmund, on March 12, the Romanian handballers defeated Czechoslovakia 9-8 at the end of stoppage time. Just three years later, on March 15, 1964, in Prague, Romania won a new world title, this time beating Sweden, 25-22. After a world bronze in 1967, when Romania defeated the USSR in the bronze final of the World Championship in Sweden, a new gold medal followed in 1970. The competition was held in France, and on March 8, in Paris, Romania defeated the German Democratic Republic 13-12 after extra time. It was the last world title won by Cornel Oţelea as a player. Overall, he gathered 92 caps with Romania’s national team, scoring 147 goals. Romania remained a world superpower in handball and won another world championship, in 1974, when the competitions were held in East Germany, Romania beating the host team 14-12.

After retiring from professional competitions, Cornel Oţelea went on to become a successful coach. His first great achievement was winning the European Champions Cup with Steaua in 1977. Also with Cornel Oţelea at the helm, the Romanian men’s national team won its last medal at a world championship, bronze at the 1990 edition held in Czechoslovakia, after losing 27-21 in the bronze final to Yugoslavia. Let us further note that in 1983-84 and then between 1991 and 1997 he was the commander of the Steaua Bucharest Army Sports Club. In 1997, the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest awarded him the rank of major-general, the current equivalent of the rank of brigadier general. (VP)