In a career that spanned more than 20 years Ștefan Birtalan became one of the best handball players of all time. Birtalan began his playing career in 1964 with Rapid CFR Jibou when he was 16-years-old. He spent the bulk of his time with Steaua București, winning 12 Romanian National League titles with the team (1971–77, 1979–81, 1984–85). From 1966 to 1982 Birtalan played in 231 matches for the Romania national handball team, scoring 993 goals. He was part of the squads that won two World Championships (1970, 1974) and two World University Championships (1973, 1975). At the Olympics he won silver in Montréal in 1976 where he averaged almost six goals per game. He bookended his Olympic silver with bronze in München (1972) and Moskva (1980). Birtalan was also named as the World Player of the Year by the International Handball Federation on three occasions (1974, 1976, 1977).
Birtalan finished his active career as a player-coach in Italy for the 1985–86 season before returning to Romania to take up a coaching role with his old club Steaua București. His success continued with them, leading the team to six Romanian National League titles (1987–90, 2000–01) and three Romanian Cups (1990, 2000–01) across two separate spells with the club. Birtalan also had a spell as the national coach of the Romanian team from 1993 to 1994, before coaching the Qatar national team from 1994 until 1999.
Romania