Romania Sports – Top 5 Most Popular Sports in Romania
Wondering what sports the Romanians like to play?
Discover everything about the most popular sports in Romania in this post. ⚽️
The Most Popular Romanian Sports
Find below Romania national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Football |
| 2 | Handball |
| 3 | Basketball |
| 4 | Volleyball |
| 5 | Gymnastics |
So there you have them, the most popular Romanian sports! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Romania.
What is the National Sport of Romania?
The national sport of Romania is oină, a variant of baseball. The sport is said to date back to 1782, and it is played on a 7 m / 230 ft by 32 m / 105 ft wide court. The 2 teams (defenders and attackers) are made of 11 players. The goal of the game depends if the team is attacking or defending. At bat, players need to open the play and run until the escape line. At catch, players need to hit the ones that are running with the ball.
Learn More About Romania Popular Sports
Romania is located in the middle of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, and it is bordered by Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, and Serbia. Its capital city is Bucharest, which counts more than 1,883,000 inhabitants (but more than 2,155,000 if you include the metropolitan area).
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Romania popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Football
The most popular sport in Romania is, by far football. There are not many extremely famous Romanian football players, but the one that comes closest to international fame is definitely Gheorghe Hagi, who played for the main club of the capital city, Steaua București, before joining Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Talking about Steaua București, it became the first-ever Eastern European club to win the European Champions League title in 1986. They could have won it again in 1989, but lost to AC Milan in the finals.
Famous Romanian Football players: Gheorghe Hagi, Gheorghe Popescu, Adrian Mutu, Cristian Chivu, Dan Petrescu, Mircea Lucescu, Dorinel Munteanu, Miodrag Belodedici, Costel Pantilimon, Gabriel Torje, Ciprian Marica, Raul Rusescu, Ștefan Radu, Nicolae Dobrin
Handball
The second most popular Romania sport is handball. Handball is very popular in Romania, and the men’s national handball team is exceptionally successful, having won the World Cup 4 times, in 1961, 1964, 1970, and 1974. As you can see, the golden age of Romanian handball was several decades ago, but many great players originate from the country, like Gheorghe Gruia, Alexandru Buligan, and Cristian Zaharia.
The women’s team is also very successful, and there are many famous players, most notoriously four-times World Player of the Year Cristina Neagu.
Famous Romanian Handball players: Gheorghe Gruia, Ștefan Birtalan, Cristina Neagu, Marian Cozma, Carmen Amariei, Aurelia Brădeanu, Adina Laura Meiroșu, Ionica Munteanu, Nicolae Munteanu
Basketball
The third most popular sport in Romania is basketball. Basketball is on the rise in Romania, as it is extremely popular among the youth of the country. For now, there has been no exceptional international success for the national team, compared to other sports, but some players still joined the NBA, notably Georghe Mureșan. He was famous for being the tallest man to play in that league!
There are several national leagues, a men’s national team, and a women’s national team in Romania.
Famous Romanian Basketball players: Ernie Grunfeld, Georghe Mureșan, Gheorghe Constantinide, Cornel Călugăreanu, Vasile Popescu, Emanoil Răducanu, Cezar Niculescu
Volleyball
The fourth most popular sport in Romania is volleyball. Similar to basketball, volleyball is very popular among the younger generations, and it is on the rise. There are both men’s and women’s national volleyball teams, and they have won many medals at international tournaments over the years, most of them during the 1950s and the 1960s.
The success of the national team has not stopped since then though, since the men’s team reached the Final 4 of the 2010 European Volleyball League, and the year after that as well.
Famous Romanian Volleyball players: Carmen Țurlea, Cristina Pîrv, Alida Cioroianu-Marcovici, Mirela Corjeuţanu, Anca Popescu, Luminița Pintea-Trombițaș, Elena Butnaru, Nicoleta Țolișteanu-Manu
Gymnastics
The fifth and last most popular sport in Romania is gymnastics. Romanian gymnastics is reputed worldwide. You must have heard of legend Nadia Comăneci, who was the first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10 during the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. She won 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and 1 bronze medal at the age of 14, and won many other ones afterward.
The sport is a long-lasting tradition in Romania, and it will probably always stay this way! It is also the most popular individual sport in the country.
Famous Romanian Gymnastics players: Nadia Comăneci, Ecaterina Szabo, Daniela Silivaș, Cătălina Ponor, Simona Păucă, Lavinia Miloșovici, Simona Amânar, Andreea Răducan
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Romania. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.
In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:
More Sport Facts!
Loved these Romania sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?
Then check out these posts:
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