List of handballers with 1000 or more international goals

Iceland's Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson holds the record with 1879 goals.
Kiril Lazarov of North Macedonia holds the record for most goals per game.

In total, 27 handballers to date have scored 1000 or more goals for their national teams at senior level.

A vast majority of the players who scored at least 1000 goals, are from the modern era of the sport. This is partly because fewer games were played at international level than today. Péter Kovács held the record for most goals scored, until Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson beat his record in 2018. France is the country with the most entries on this list, with four players having scored 1000 or more goals. Only two players on this list have played for two different federations. Frank-Michael Wahl scored 1338 goals for East Germany and 74 goals for the German national team, also Talant Duyshebaev, who scored 726 goals for USSR, Unified Team and Russia and 569 goals for Spain. Only goals scored at the highest international level are included, meaning goals for national junior and youth teams aren't. Only one player scoring more than 1000 goals managed to reach a goals per game ratio 7.0 and above, while the lowest ratio is 3.09. Out of 27 players to score 1000 or more goals in history, only 10 of them have won the World Championship at least once. Ahmed El-Ahmar is the only non-European player to appear on this list.

By player

  • updated as of 29 January 2024

Players in bold are still active.

Men's handball

Rank Player Goals Ratio
1 Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 1879 5.15
2 Péter Kovács 1797 5.56
3 Kiril Lazarov 1728 7.32
4 Ólafur Stefánsson 1562 4.75
5 Lars Christiansen 1503 4.45
6 Jérôme Fernandez 1463 3.75
7 Carlos Resende 1444 5.78
8 Ahmed El-Ahmar 1425 4.43
9 Vasile Stîngă 1414 5.26
10 Frank-Michael Wahl 1412 4.1
11 Settimio Massotti 1371 4.54
12 Mikkel Hansen 1350 5.08
13 Talant Duyshebaev 1342 -
14 Nikola Karabatić 1293 3.66
15 Magnus Wislander 1185 3.09
16 Jerzy Klempel 1170 5.6
17 Stefan Lövgren 1138 4.25
18 Kristján Arason 1123 4.58
19 Eduard Koksharov 1110 4.91
20 Andy Schmid 1094 5.02
21 Marc Baumgartner 1093 6.47
22 Andreas Dittert 1089 5.36
23 Robert Licu 1054 4.34
24 Per Carlén 1032 3.14
25 Michaël Guigou 1021 3.61
26 Frédéric Volle 1016 4.22
27 Erik Veje Rasmussen 1015 4.36

See also