Bogdan Wenta


Bogdan Brunon Wenta is a Polish politician and handball coach and former Polish and German handball player. He has been a member of the Poland national handball team in 1981–1994 and Germany national handball team in 1997–2000, a participant of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, five-time Polish Champion, and former head coach of Poland. He has been one of the best handball player in the history of Polish handball. Between 2014-2018 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Polish Civic Platform. In 2018, he was elected as Mayor of Kielce, having run from his own committee with the endorsement of the Civic Platform.

Personal life

Since 1984 he has been married to Iwona. They have one son Tomasz. In 2014 Bogdan Wenta was elected to European Parliament.

Career as player

Clubs

Wenta's entire career in Poland was connected with one club - Wybrzeże Gdańsk, where he started playing in first team in 1978, when he was 17. He was five-times Polish Champion and achieved European Cup final twice, losing to RK Metaloplastika Šabac in 1986 and SKA Mińsk in 1987. In 1989 he moved to Spain and played for Bidasoa Irún and FC Barcelona Handbol. He was first Polish player in FC Barcelona. At last, he emigrated to Germany, and played for TuS Nettelstedt and SG Flensburg-Handewitt.

National teams

Poland 1981–1993

Wenta made his debut in Polish national team in 1981, when he was barely 20. He was appointed by Zygfryd Kuchta. It was match with Switzerland. He represented Poland in 185 official games and scored 763 goals, which is the third result in history of Polish handball.
He took part in IHF World Handball Championship twice - in 1986 and 1990. He did not participe in Olympic Games as Polish player. In 1993 he was blamed for Poland's elimination during qualifications to 1994 European Men's Handball Championship. Since then he was never called up again to Polish national team.

Germany 1997–2000

In 1996 Wenta accepted German citizenship, which caused a lot of controversy in his homeland, Poland. However he has never played against Poland. He represented the German side in 46 official games and scored 144 goals. He was a member of German national team in IHF World Handball Championship twice - 1997 and 1999. In 1998 he achieved bronze medal of European Championship and took part in European Championship 2000. He made his Olympic debut at Olympics Sydney 2000.
He regained Polish citizenship in 2008.

Career as coach, 2000–2012

Bogdan Wenta retired in 2000 and became coach assistant in SG Flensburg-Handewitt. In 2005 he had to enter the court and play because of many players had injuries. He was 44 and this number was on his shirt.
From summer 2006 to autumn 2007 he was head coach of German handball club, SC Magdeburg.
On 28 October 2004 Wenta was announced as Poland national handball team head coach. In 2007 he achieved with national team the biggest success of Polish handball - Poland won silver medal of World Championship. They lost the final to host team - Germany 25:29. In 2008 Poland took the fifth place by defeating Russia 29:28 at 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing. In 2009 Poland led by him achieved second medal of IHF World Handball Championship. They won the bronze medal by defeating Denmark 31:23 at World Championship 2009 in Croatia. In January 2010 he was awarded Coach of Year 2009 by Plebiscite of Przegląd Sportowy. In 2012 national team did not qualify to Olympic Games. On April 19, 2012 he announced his resignation.
Wenta was a Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2014 European elections. In European Parliament, he served on the Committee on Culture and Education and on the Committee on Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the Parliament's delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2018, he quit his membership in the European Parliament after being elected as Mayor of Kielce in 2018 Polish local elections.

Other activities

Clubs

National championships