Simona Spiridon (née Popa; born 1 February 1980 in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

- Austrian handballer who plays for the Austrian club

Hypo Niederösterreich Hypo Niederösterreich (Hypo NÖ) is an Austrian women's handball club, headquartered in Maria Enzersdorf. They are one of the most successful teams on the EHF Champions League, having won the title eight times. They are also former winners of the ...

. She is also member of the Austrian national team.

Career

n born Spiridon moved to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in 2001 when she signed for

. Having gained Austrian

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, her first outing with her new national team came in 2004, at a tournament in the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

where they defeated

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. Averaging 3 goals per match, Spiridon has scored over 368 goals in 98 international appearances. Her club successes are well documented. With

, she has picked up two gold medals in younger age category

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in addition to the 4

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 ...

and 5

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

titles. Spiridon has also made it to the

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 ...

Final 2009 against Viborg and semi-final on four occasions. Since autumn 2012 Spiridon worked at Hypo Niederösterreich as a youth coach, at the beginning of the season 2013/14 she was reactivated in Hypo's squad. In the begin of 2014 she ended her active career. In summer 2014 she will start working as a coach at the ÖHB.

References

1980 births Living people People from Roman, Romania Austrian female handball players Austrian people of Romanian descent Romanian female handball players Expatriate handball players Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Győri Audi ETO KC players Sportspeople from Neamț County {{Romania-handball-bio-stub