Mircea Costache II
Mircea Costache II was a Romanian handball player and coach who played as a pivot for Dinamo București and for the national team. He scored the winning goal in the 1961 World Championship final.
After retiring he became a coach in his native Romania and abroad in Algeria and Portugal. Costache led the national team of Algeria to a World Cup for the first time in 1974.
Between 1988 and 1995 he was named coach of both the Portugal senior national team and the Portuguese youth sides, with whom he won the European Youth Handball Championship in 1992.
Costache was also an associate professor at the Moderna University in Lisbon from 1997 to 2002.Honours
Player
;Dinamo Bucharest
- Romanian League: 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966
- European Cup: 1965
- *Runner-up: 1963
National team
;Romania
- World Champion: 1961, 1964
- *Bronze medal'': 1967
Coach
;Nadit Alger
- Algerian League: 1974, 1975
- Algerian Cup: 1973
;Águas Santas
- Campeonato Nacional : 1996
;Algeria
;Portugal
- Winner of the gold medal at the 1992 European Youth Championship
- Winner of the bronze medal at the 1995 IHF Junior World Championship
Distinctions
- Ordinul Muncii: 1961
- Maestru Emerit al Sportului: 1961
- Medalia "Meritul Sportiv": 1964
- Medalha de Bons Serviços Desportivos : 1993
- Medalia Serviciu Credincios: 2001
- Ordinul "Meritul sportiv" clasa II-a: 2009
- Campion de Legendă: 2009
Selected publications
