Kiril "Kire" Lazarov (, born 10 May 1980) is a Macedonian former professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor 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 thr ...

player and current coach of the North Macedonia national handball team and RK Alkaloid. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and won over forty titles playing for clubs in North Macedonia, Croatia, Hungary, and Spain. Lazarov holds the record for most goals scored in a single

World Men's Handball Championship The IHF Men's Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938. In the twenty-nine tournaments held, twelve national teams have won the title. France is the most successful team with six ...

(92). He is also the all-time top scorer in the

EHF Champions League The 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 men's com ...

and the only player to have scored more than 1,300 goals. He is third on the all-time list of players by number of international goals scored and has the highest ratio of goals scored per match.

Career

Lazarov was the top scorer of the

two times with

MKB Veszprém MKB may refer to: Business * MKB Bank, the third-biggest commercial bank in Hungary * MKB Raduga, a Russian aerospace company * MKB Fakel, a Russian government-owned aerospace defense corporation Community *Moogooru Karnataka Brahmin, a sect of ...

and

RK Zagreb Rukometni klub Zagreb (, ) is a men's professional handball club from Zagreb, Croatia. It competes in the Croatian Premier League and the EHF Champions League. RK Zagreb has won 38 national championships and the national cup 32 times. The c ...

. In 2011–12, he was the top scorer for Velux EHF Final 4 runner-up Atlético Madrid. On 29 January 2009, Lazarov became world record-holder for the number of goals scored in one

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 ...

. He scored 92 goals in nine games for the Macedonia national team at the

2009 World Men's Handball Championship The 2009 World Men's Handball Championship was the 21st edition of the tournament that took place in Croatia from 16 January to 1 February, in the cities of Split, Zadar, Osijek, Varaždin, Poreč, Zagreb and Pula. Croatia was selected from a gr ...

that took place in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. On 24 March 2009, Lazarov was awarded the Medal for Service to the Country by the then-

president of the Republic of Macedonia The president of the Republic of North Macedonia (; )In Macedonian, the feminine form of the position is ''Претседателка на Република Северна Македонија'', while in Albanian it is ''Presidentја е Rep ...

Branko Crvenkovski Branko Crvenkovski (, pronounced ; born 12 October 1962) is a Macedonian politician who served as the President of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) from 2004 to 2009. He previously served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 1992 to 1998 and from ...

in acknowledgment of his sport achievements and his contribution to developing and popularizing the sport in Macedonia as well as promoting the country abroad. On 27 January 2012, Lazarov became both the European and World record-holder for scored goals in a single championship by scoring 61 goals in 7 games at the

2012 European Men's Handball Championship The 2012 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the tenth edition of the men's continental handball tournament, which was held in Serbia between 15 and 29 January 2012. Sixteen teams qualified for the event, including host nation Serbia, ...

. On 4 October 2015, with his fifth goal in a match against PICK Szeged, Lazarov became the first player in the history of the

to break the 1000 goals barrier and helped Barcelona win 30:28. On 29 May 2016, Lazarov was voted as The Best Right Back of the Champions League All-star team. In late December 2020, he was voted as best right back of the decade in a poll organized by Handball Planet, with votes coming from fans and a jury consisting of handball legends, coaches and journalists. Lazarov was inducted into the

European Handball Federation The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is made of 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland), and is headquartered in Vienna, Au ...

Hall of Fame in 2023.

Honours

*RK Pelister ** Macedonian League: (1997–98 and 1999-00) **

Macedonian Cup The Cup of Macedonia (, ''Kup na Makedonija'') is the top knockout tournament and the second most important football competition in North Macedonia after the Macedonian First League championship. The cup was established in 1992 after local clubs ...

: (1998 and 1999) *RK Zagreb ** Croatian League: (2001, 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2010) **

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...

: (2000, 2008, 2009 and 2010) *MKB Veszprem KC **

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians/Magyars, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the ...

: (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006) **Hungarian Cup: ( 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007) *BM Ciudad Real **

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: (2010–11) **

ASOBAL Cup Liga Asobal is the premier professional handball league in Spain. It was founded in 1958 with the name of División de Honor, changing its name to the current name in 1990. The Liga ASOBAL, which is played under EHF rules, currently consists of ...

: (2010–11) ** ASOBAL Supercup: (2010–11) ** EHF Champions League runner-up: (

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

) **

IHF Super Globe The Men's Super Globe is a handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a bal ...

: (

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

) *BM Atlético Madrid ** ASOBAL Supercup: (2011–12) **

: (2011–12) and (2012–13) **

: (2012–2013) **

: (

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

) *FC Barcelona Handbol **

: ( 2014–15) ** ASOBAL League: (2013–14), (2014–15) and (2015–16) **

: (

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

), (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

) ** ASOBAL Supercup: (2013–14), (2014–15) and (2015–16) **

: (2013–14), (2014–15) and (2015–16) **

: (2013–14), (2014–15) and (2015–16) *HBC Nantes ** EHF Champions League runner-up: ( 2017–18)

Personal life

Lazarov has been married to his wife Ljubica since June 2006. They have two children, a boy named Blagojče and girl named Lana. His brother

Filip Filip () is a masculine given name and a surname, cognate to Philip. The male name Filip comes from the Greek "philos" (love) and "hippos" (horse), which means "horse lover". In Croatia, the name Filip was among the most common masculine given nam ...

is also a handball player.

References

External links

* *
FC Barcelona profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarov, Kiril 1980 births Living people Macedonian male handball players 21st-century Macedonian sportsmen Liga ASOBAL players BM Ciudad Real players RK Zagreb players Veszprém KC players FC Barcelona Handbol players People from Sveti Nikole Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in France Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Handball coaches of international teams Macedonian handball coaches HBC Nantes players Macedonian expatriate handball players in Hungary Expatriate handball players in Spain Macedonian expatriate handball players in France Expatriate handball players in Croatia

Career

Honours

Personal life

See also

References

External links