Portugal men's national handball team

Portugal
Shirt badge/Association crest
Information
Association	Portuguese Handball Federation
Coach	Paulo Pereira
Assistant coach	Jorge Fidalgo
Most caps	Carlos Resende (250)
Most goals	Carlos Resende (1444)
Colours
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	9 (First in 1994)
Best result	5th (2026)
Last updated on 30 January 2026.

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 nine times in the European Championship, with a fifth place in 2026 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.

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 5th place at the European Championship in 2026.

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	Qualified
/ 2029	To be determined
// 2031
Total	7/32	–	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	5th/6th place match	5	8	4	2	2	274	267
// 2028	Qualified as co-host
2030
2032
Total	9/20	–	51	18	4	29	1425	1486

Team

Current squad

Squad for the 2026 European Men's Handball Championship.

Head coach: Paulo Pereira

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 8 P Victor Iturriza (1990-05-22) 22 May 1990 1.93 m 62 214 Kuwait SC 9 CB Filipe Graça Monteiro (2004-04-26) 26 April 2004 1.81 m 5 5 Sporting CP 13 LB Salvador Salvador (2001-07-29) 29 July 2001 1.98 m 45 102 Sporting CP 14 CB Rui Silva (1993-04-28) 28 April 1993 1.86 m 153 276 FC Porto 20 LB Miguel José Soares Neves (2000-10-31) 31 October 2000 2.03 m 7 16 Saint-Raphaël Var Handball 21 LW Leonel Fernandes (1998-03-12) 12 March 1998 1.91 m 68 121 FC Porto 23 LW Diogo Branquinho (1994-07-25) 25 July 1994 1.85 m 112 233 Sporting CP 25 RW Antonio Areia (1990-06-21) 21 June 1990 1.90 m 115 344 Tremblay Handball 26 RB Francisco Costa (2005-02-16) 16 February 2005 1.90 m 44 157 Sporting CP 29 RW José Luís Correia Ferreira (2005-06-24) 24 June 2005 1.83 m 5 5 FC Porto 41 GK Gustavo Capdeville (1997-08-31) 31 August 1997 1.90 m 74 0 Benfica 66 RB João Gomes (2002-09-06) 6 September 2002 1.78 m 20 48 VfL Gummersbach 79 CB Martim Costa (2002-09-27) 27 September 2002 1.88 m 42 177 Sporting CP 82 P Luís Frade (1998-09-11) 11 September 1998 1.94 m 90 204 FC Barcelona 86 P Ricardo Brandão (2004-04-28) 28 April 2004 1.95 m 25 29 FC Porto 95 CB Gabriel Cavalcanti (2004-04-30) 30 April 2004 1.97 m 9 16 Benfica 96 GK Pedro Tonicher (2003-01-16) 16 January 2003 1.90 m 2 0 BM Ciudad Encantada 99 GK Diogo Valério (1999-02-10) 10 February 1999 1.94 m 14 0 Olympiacos

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

External links

• IHF profile