Andrey Lavrov
Talant Dujshebaev
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Andrey Lavrov leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Andrey Lavrov at #9 and Talant Dujshebaev at #10.
The case for Andrey Lavrov
Three Olympic gold medals, won under three different flags, across twelve years. Lavrov kept goal for the Soviet Union when they won in Seoul in 1988, for the Unified Team in Barcelona in 1992, and for Russia in Sydney in 2000, then added a bronze in Athens in 2004 at the age of 42 - a span of Olympic relevance no other handball player has matched. In between he won world titles with Russia in 1993 and 1997 and the European Championship in 1996, the peak of the post-Soviet Russian side. He was a goalkeeper of extreme physical courage in an era when defenders were permitted more contact and shots arrived harder and flatter, and his reading of wing shooters was considered untouchable. He later coached and worked in the Russian federation. For most of the sport's history his three Olympic golds were simply the record, and only Karabatic and Katrine Lunde have since equalled them.
The case for Talant Dujshebaev
Born in Frunze in Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Dujshebaev won Olympic gold with the Unified Team in 1992, took Spanish citizenship, and then won Olympic bronze for Spain in 1996 and 2000 - a career that traced the political redrawing of the sport. He was named IHF World Player of the Year twice, in 1994 and 1996, as a centre back of unusual physical power who could shoot from nine metres and defend the middle of a 6-0 for a full match, a combination that barely exists now. He spent his best club years in Spain with Teka Santander and Ciudad Real, in the period when the Spanish league was the strongest in the world. His second career made him more influential still: as a coach he took Kielce to the Champions League title in 2016, and both his sons, Alex and Daniel, became Spanish internationals. Few people have shaped three handball nations.