Bogdan Wenta

Polish-born handball backcourt player Bogdan Wenta placed fifth with the German team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He won 50 international caps and scored 144 goals with Germany, and won 185 caps and scored 763 goals with Poland. He was considered as one of the world’s best backcourt players. In 1997 he received German citizenship.

At club level, Wenta played in Poland with Wybrzeże Gdańsk (1978-89), in Spain with Bidasoa Irún (1989-93), and FC Barcelona (1993-95), then in Germany with TuS Nettelstedt (1995-2000), and SG Flensburg-Handewitt (2000-2002). He helped Gdańsk win the Polish Championships from 1984-88. He also won the Spanish Cup with Irún in 1991 and with Barcelona in 1994. In 1994 and 1995, he won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Barcelona and in 2001 with Flensburg-Handewitt. In 1997 and 1998 he also won the Euro-City-Cup with Nettelstedt.

Wenta turned to coaching after his active career, working with SG Flensburg-Handewitt (2002-06), SC Magdeburg (2006-07), the Polish national team (2004-12), and KS Vive Kielce (2008-14). As a coach he won the Polish Championship four times in 2009-10, 2012-13, and the Polish Cup five years in succession from 2009-13. In 2007, he won the EHF Cup and added a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships and a bronze at the 2009 Worlds. In 2014, he became club manager of Kielce.

Wenta was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta by the Polish President Lech Kaczyński in 2007. He then turned to politics and was elected a member of the European Parliament in 2014 representing Poland. In 2018, he was elected City Major of Kielce.