S.L. Benfica (handball)
professional handball club in Lisbon, Portugal
Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨˈpɔɾ liʒˈβoɐ i βɐ̃jˈfikɐ] ), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional handball team based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Benfica play in the top tier domestic league, Andebol 1, and hold home matches at the Pavilhão da Luz Nº 2. Since its inception in 1932, Benfica have won 7 Portuguese League titles, 6 Portuguese Cups, 2 Portuguese League Cups, and 7 Portuguese Super Cups. Internationally, Benfica won the EHF European League in 2021–22, becoming the first Portuguese club to win the competition.
In addition to the club's men's reserve team, Benfica B, playing in the second division, Benfica also has a women's team, who are the current Portuguese champions, having won 12 League titles, 10 Cups, 1 Federation Cup and 6 Super Cups.
History
Beginning
Founded on 8 May 1932, Benfica's handball section endured a troubled start shortly after being founded. It was inactive from 1939 to 1942–43 because of a conflict between Benfica and the Portuguese Handball Federation. Until the 1960s, handball was played by eleven players, and after 1962–63, in another dispute with the federation, Benfica closed the eleven players team and opted for the current team handball.
The handball section did not achieve success until 1961–62, being overshadowed by the football, cycling, basketball and roller hockey sections of the club during that time.
Golden years
After a period of dominance by crosstown rivals Sporting CP, Benfica experienced great success in the 1980s and early 1990s, when was led by coach Eugene Troffin, and later by Ângelo Pintado, along with players such as Paulo Bunze, Swedish international Fredrik Appelgren, Dogărescu, Covaciu and Drăgăniță, goalkeeper João Santa Bárbara, wingman Mário Gentil, Vasco Vasconcelos, Luís Lopes and Rui Ferreira; Benfica won four national championships, three Portuguese Cup and two Portuguese Super Cup.
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This entry incorporates text from “S.L. Benfica (handball)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.