Hansi Schmidt


Hans-Günther „Hansi“ Schmidt is a former Romanian-born German handball player.
The son of a medical doctor, and an athletic prodigy, Schmidt became Romanian national high school champion in the shot put. After playing for Știința Timișoara and Știința Bucharest, he transferred to Steaua Bucharest, the military team.
Schmidt defected from Romania to West Germany when he was 21 years old during a match tour with the Romanian national youth team. Being a member of the military, he was sentenced to death for desertion.
In seven out of twelve German championships which VfL Gummersbach won in the Handball-Bundesliga, Hansi Schmidt played a crucial role as a goalscorer and playmaker. All in all, he played in ten finals for the German championship. Between 1967 and 1972 he became six times in a row top goalscorer of the Bundesliga's Northern League, the first five times also of the Bundesliga itself. In 1975 he became again top goalscorer of the Northern League.
In 2008 he was named one of the VfL's "All-Star-Team“.
Considered to be the inventor of the delayed jump shot in handball, he worked as a coach, and later as a physical education teacher, after retiring from active play. He is married and has two children.

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