Gabriella Szűcs


Gabriella Ibolya Szűcs is a Romanian professional handball player for HC Dunărea Brăila and the Romanian national team. Born in the Communist Romania to Hungarian parents, Szűcs has both Hungarian and Romanian citizenship. Initially a Hungarian international, she represents Romania from 2015.

Career

Born in Oradea in 1984, her family moved to Hungary before the Romanian Revolution and settled in Debrecen. Her father was a professional footballer, whilst her mother was a handball player, which could have a great influence on that Gabriella started to practice various sports since a very young age. First she tried rhythmic gymnastics later switched to folk dance. In the school she was talented in many sports including basketball and football, but finally she has chosen handball.
She started to play handball at the age of eleven, and whilst in school she already had seven trainings a week. At the age of fourteen she was signed by DVSC, where she spent the next ten seasons. During this time she developed to a quality left back both on domestic and international level. With the Hungarian national team she won bronze medal on the European Championship in 2004, and a year later on the World Championship as well. She was also member of the team which finished fourth on the Olympic Games in Beijing. In 2009, she moved to Romanian top club CS Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea, where she spent two season before re-joined her old club DVSC.
Her second spell at the club, however, was cut short after DVSC faced heavy financial problems and let many of their key players to go to axe their wage budget. Szűcs remained by the club until December 2011, when she moved to the Romanian Championship again, this time to HC Zalău, where she joined her former coach Gheorghe Tadici.

Personal life

She has a younger sister, Nikolett, who is also a professional handball player.

Achievements