Romania’s Cristina Neagu and Dane Mikkel Hansen were voted the World Handball Players of the Year 2015, the International Handball Federation (IHF) has announced.

“After a group of experts had chosen ten handball players they considered the best of the best in 2015, it was time for media and fans to choose and they sure did. Thousands of votes were cast and the result is now final Danish handball star Mikkel Hansen and Cristina Neagu, Romania’s number one player, are the World Players of the Year 2015,” reads the IHF statement.

The Romanian won the Player of the Year title with 50.5% of the media votes and 72.9% of the fan votes. She had previously won the IHF Rookie of the Year 2009 and IHF World Handball Player of the Year 2010. She has also been chosen Romania’s Player of the Year 2015.

“2015 was the year of 27-year-old left back Cristian Neagu. With ZRK Budunost Podgorica she finished top of the national league of Montenegro, won the Montenegrin Cup and claimed the 2015 EHF Champions League title, sharing the first place of the EHF Champions League top scorer list with Andrea Penezic (102 goals),” according to IHF.

Neagu also helped Romania to win bronze at the 2015 Women’s World Championship.

Norway’s Heidi Loke, the Netherlands’ Nycke Groot, Polish Karolina Kudlacz-Gloc, and Norwegian Nora Mork also competed for the World Handball Player of the Year 2015.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com