Portugal men's national handball team

The Portugal men's national handball team is governed by the Portuguese Handball Federation and represents Portugal in international men's handball matches. They have appeared six times in the World Championship, reaching an all-time best fourth place in 2025, and eight times in the European Championship, with a sixth place in 2020 as their best result. The team participated for the first time in the Olympic handball tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, finishing in ninth place.

Portugal
Information
Association	Portuguese Handball Federation
Coach	Paulo Pereira
Assistant coach	Paulo Fidalgo
Most caps	Carlos Resende (250)
Most goals	Carlos Resende (1444)
Colours
1st 2nd
Results
Summer Olympics
Appearances	1 (First in 2020)
Best result	9th (2020)
World Championship
Appearances	6 (First in 1997)
Best result	4th (2025)
European Championship
Appearances	8 (First in 1994)
Best result	6th (2020)
Last updated on 2 February 2025.

Competitive record

Portugal has competed six times at the World Championship (1997, 2001, 2003, 2021, 2023, 2025) and eight times at the European Championship (1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2020, 2022, 2024). They qualified automatically for the final tournaments of the World Championship in 2003 and of the inaugural European Championship in 1994 as the host team. Their best results are a fourth place at the World Championship in 2025, and a sixth place at the European Championship in 2020.^[1]

Legend

•   Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  
• Red-colored border indicates that tournament was held on home soil.

Olympic Games

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1936 Berlin	Did not qualify
Not held from 1948 to 1968
1972 Munich	Did not qualify
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing
2012 London
2016 Rio de Janeiro
2020 Tokyo	Preliminary round	9	5	1	0	4	143	156
2024 Paris	Did not qualify
2028 Los Angeles	To be determined
2032 Brisbane
Total	1/15	–	5	1	0	4	143	156

World Championship

World Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1938	Did not qualify
1954
1958
1961
1964
1967
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1993
1995
1997	Preliminary round	19	5	1	0	4	119	123
1999	Did not qualify
2001	Round of 16	16	6	2	0	4	140	145
2003	Second round	12	7	4	0	3	219	182
2005	Did not qualify
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
/ 2019
2021	Main round	10	6	4	0	2	168	152
/ 2023		13	6	3	1	2	178	157
// 2025	Semi-finals	4	9	6	1	2	301	274
2027	To be determined
/ 2029
// 2031
Total	6/32	–	39	20	2	17	1125	1033

European Championship

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1994	Preliminary round	12	6	0	0	6	117	154
1996	Did not qualify
1998
2000	Preliminary round	7	6	3	0	3	153	160
2002	Second round	9	7	3	0	4	173	174
2004	Preliminary round	14	3	0	1	2	91	101
2006	Preliminary round	15	3	0	0	3	80	96
2008	Did not qualify
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
// 2020	5th/6th place match	6	8	4	0	4	228	220
/ 2022	Preliminary round	19	3	0	0	3	85	91
2024	Main round	7	7	4	1	2	224	223
// 2026	Qualified
// 2028	Qualified as co-host
Total	9/18	–	43	14	2	27	1151	1219

Team

Current squad

Squad for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship.^[2][3]

Head coach: Paulo Pereira

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 4 RW Pedro Portela (1990-01-06) 6 January 1990 (age 35) 1.86 m 146 483 Sporting CP 8 P Victor Iturriza (1990-05-22) 22 May 1990 (age 35) 1.94 m 46 154 FC Porto 14 CB Rui Silva (1993-04-28) 28 April 1993 (age 32) 1.86 m 137 242 FC Porto 16 GK Diogo Rêma Marques (2004-03-17) 17 March 2004 (age 21) 1.90 m 18 0 FC Porto 21 LW Leonel Fernandes (1998-03-12) 12 March 1998 (age 27) 1.91 m 52 101 FC Porto 23 LW Diogo Branquinho (1994-07-25) 25 July 1994 (age 31) 1.85 m 94 203 Sporting CP 24 LB Alexandre Cavalcanti (1996-12-27) 27 December 1996 (age 28) 2.01 m 87 110 MT Melsungen 25 RW António Areia (1990-06-21) 21 June 1990 (age 35) 1.90 m 99 285 Tremblay-en-France Handball 26 RB Francisco Costa (2005-02-16) 16 February 2005 (age 20) 1.83 m 30 101 Sporting CP 31 LB Salvador Salvador (2001-07-29) 29 July 2001 (age 24) 1.96 m 29 56 Sporting CP 41 GK Gustavo Capdeville (1997-08-31) 31 August 1997 (age 27) 1.90 m 54 0 SL Benfica 65 CB André Sousa (2002-03-03) 3 March 2002 (age 23) 1.86 m 7 13 ABC/UMinho 66 RB João Gomes (2002-09-06) 6 September 2002 (age 22) 1.78 m 2 3 Sporting CP 79 CB Martim Costa (2002-09-27) 27 September 2002 (age 22) 1.88 m 28 111 Sporting CP 80 LB Miguel Oliveira (2004-01-13) 13 January 2004 (age 21) 2.00 m 0 0 FC Porto 82 P Luís Frade (1998-09-11) 11 September 1998 (age 26) 1.94 m 72 160 Barça 86 P Ricardo Brandão (2004-04-28) 28 April 2004 (age 21) 1.98 m 7 11 FC Porto 88 LB Fábio Magalhães (1988-03-12) 12 March 1988 (age 37) 1.94 m 183 351 FC Porto

Notable former coaches

• Mircea Costache
• Mats Olsson
• Aleksander Donner

Player statistics

Most appearances Name Matches Position Years Carlos Resende 250 OB, CB 1992-2006 Carlos Galambas 216 P 1990–2011 Ricardo Martins da Costa 204 W Fábio Magalhães 181 OB 2006- Ricardo Andorinho 155 W 1994−2008 Hugo Figueira 152 GK Tiago Rocha 136 P Carlos Carneiro 93 CB 2003-2020

Top Scorers Name Goals Average Position Years Carlos Resende 1444 5.78 OB, CB 1992-2006 Ricardo Andorinho 528 3.41 W 1994−2008 Ricardo Martins da Costa 453+ W Tiago Rocha 355 P Carlos Galambas 300+ P 1990–2011