Kiril "Kire" Lazarov (Macedonian: Кирил „Кире“ Лазаров, born 10 May 1980) is a Macedonian former professional handball player and current coach of the North Macedonia national handball team and RK Alkaloid. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and won over forty titles playing for clubs in North Macedonia, Croatia, Hungary and Spain.[1][2]

Lazarov holds the record for most goals scored in a single World Men's Handball Championship (92). He is also the all-time top scorer in the EHF Champions League and the only player to have scored more than 1,300 goals. He is third on the all-time list of players by number of international goals scored and has the highest ratio of goals scored per match.

Career

Lazarov was the top scorer of the EHF Champions League two times with MKB Veszprém and RK Zagreb. In 2011–12, he was the top scorer for Velux EHF Final 4 runner-up Atlético Madrid.[3]

On 29 January 2009, Lazarov became world record-holder for the number of goals scored in one World Championship. He scored 92 goals in nine games for the Macedonia national team at the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship that took place in Croatia. On 24 March 2009, Lazarov was awarded the Medal for Service to the Country by the then-president of the Republic of Macedonia Branko Crvenkovski in acknowledgment of his sport achievements and his contribution to developing and popularizing the sport in Macedonia as well as promoting the country abroad.

On 27 January 2012, Lazarov became both the European and World record-holder for scored goals in a single championship by scoring 61 goals in 7 games at the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship.

On 4 October 2015, with his fifth goal in a match against PICK Szeged, Lazarov became the first player in the history of the EHF Champions League to break the 1000 goals barrier and helped Barcelona win 30:28.[4]

On 29 May 2016, Lazarov was voted as The Best Right Back of the Champions League All-star team.

In late December 2020, he was voted as best right back of the decade in a poll organized by Handball Planet, with votes coming from fans and a jury consisting of handball legends, coaches and journalists.[5][6]

Lazarov was inducted into the European Handball Federation Hall of Fame in 2023.[7]

Honours

Lazarov at the 2018 European Championship

Personal life

Lazarov has been married to his wife Ljubica since June 2006. They have two children, a boy named Blagojče and girl named Lana. His brother Filip is also a handball player.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Idrizi, Amina. "Lazarov brothers battle at the top of Group B". EHF. 20 November 2015.
  2. ^ "WCh France 2017, Day 2: Macedonia edge Tunisia, Slovenia crush Angola as SEHA players combine for 29". SEHA League. 12 January 2017.
  3. ^ ehfCL.com Lazarov: It's all about the team
  4. ^ http://www.handball-planet.com/ Kiril Lazarov scores 1000 goals in EHF Champions League!
  5. ^ "Nikola Karabatic is Nexe World Handball Player of the Decade!". December 25, 2020.
  6. ^ "Kiril Lazarov named World's best right back from 2010-2020 | MINA Report". www.minareport.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021.
  7. ^ "LEGENDARY PLAYERS ENTER THE HALL OF FAME OF EUROPEAN HANDBALL". www.eurohandball.com. European Handball Federation. June 26, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  8. ^ "The Lazarov brothers were once again 'money' for Macedonia". Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiril_Lazarov
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