Bogdan Wenta

Bogdan Brunon Wenta (born 19 November 1961) is a Polish politician and handball coach and former Polish and German handball player. He has been a member of the Poland men's national handball team in 1981–1994 and Germany men's national handball team in 1997–2000, a participant of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000,^[1] five-time Polish Champion (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988), and former head coach of Poland. He has been one of the best handball player in the history of Polish handball. Between 2014 and 2018 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Polish Civic Platform. In 2018, he was elected as Mayor of Kielce, having run from his own committee with the endorsement of the Civic Platform.

Bogdan Wenta
Wenta in 2019
Mayor of Kielce
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 November 2018
Vice President	Bożena Szczypiór Marcin Różycki Arkadiusz Kubiec
Preceded by	Wojciech Lubawski
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1 July 2014 – 13 November 2018
Constituency	Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie
Personal details
Born	Bogdan Brunon Wenta (1961-11-19) November 19, 1961 (age 62) Szpęgawsk, Poland
Political party	Świętokrzyskie project (2016–present)
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Children	Tomasz Wenta (b. 1996)
Handball career Personal information Nationality Polish German Playing position Central Senior clubs Years Team 1978–1989 Wybrzeże Gdańsk 1989–1992 Bidasoa Irún 1992–1995 FC Barcelona 1995–1998 Nettelstedt-Lübbecke 1998–2000 Flensburg-Handewitt National team ^1 Years Team Apps (Gls) 1981–1994 Poland 198 (763) 1997–2000 Germany 50 (144) Teams managed 2000–2006 Flensburg-Handewitt II 2004–2012 Poland 2006–2007 SC Magdeburg 2008–2014 Vive Kielce Medal record Representing  Germany Men's handball European Championship 1998 Italy ^1 National team caps and goals correct as of 13 June 2015

Personal life

 

Wenta (left) in his role as MEP

Since 1984 he has been married to Iwona. They have one son Tomasz (born 13 March 1996). In 2014 Bogdan Wenta was elected to European Parliament.

Career as player

Clubs

Wenta's entire career in Poland was connected with one club - Wybrzeże Gdańsk, where he started playing in first team in 1978, when he was 17. He was five-times Polish Champion (1984–1988) and achieved European Cup final twice, losing to RK Metaloplastika Šabac in 1986 and SKA Mińsk in 1987. In 1989 he moved to Spain and played for Bidasoa Irún (1989–1992) and FC Barcelona Handbol (1992–1995). He was first Polish player in FC Barcelona. At last, he emigrated to Germany, and played for TuS Nettelstedt (1995–1998) and SG Flensburg-Handewitt (1998–2000).

National teams

Poland 1981–1993

Wenta made his debut in Polish national team in 1981, when he was barely 20. He was appointed by Zygfryd Kuchta. It was match with Switzerland. He represented Poland in 185 official games (including friendly matches 198) and scored 763 goals, which is the third result in history of Polish handball.

He took part in IHF World Handball Championship twice - in 1986 (14th place) and 1990 (11th place). He did not participate in Olympic Games as Polish player. In 1993 he was blamed for Poland's elimination during qualifications to 1994 European Men's Handball Championship. Since then he was never called up again to Polish national team.

Germany 1997–2000

In 1996 Wenta accepted German citizenship, which caused a lot of controversy in his homeland, Poland. However he has never played against Poland. He represented the German side in 46 official games (and 4 friendly matches) and scored 144 goals. He was a member of German national team in IHF World Handball Championship twice - 1997 and 1999. In 1998 he achieved bronze medal of European Championship and took part in European Championship 2000. He made his Olympic debut at Olympics Sydney 2000 (5th place).

He regained Polish citizenship in 2008.

Career as coach, 2000–2012

Bogdan Wenta retired in 2000 and became coach assistant in SG Flensburg-Handewitt. In 2005 he had to enter the court and play because of many players had injuries. He was 44 and this number was on his shirt.

From summer 2006 to autumn 2007 he was head coach of German handball club, SC Magdeburg.

On 28 October 2004 Wenta was announced as Poland men's national handball team head coach. In 2007 he achieved with national team the biggest success of Polish handball - Poland won silver medal of World Championship. They lost the final to host team - Germany 25:29. In 2008 Poland took the fifth place by defeating Russia 29:28 at 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing.^[2] In 2009 Poland led by him achieved second medal of IHF World Handball Championship. They won the bronze medal by defeating Denmark 31:23 at World Championship 2009 in Croatia. In January 2010 he was awarded Coach of Year 2009 by Plebiscite of Przegląd Sportowy.^[3] In 2012 national team did not qualify to Olympic Games. On April 19, 2012, he announced his resignation.

• 2007   EHF Cup, with SC Magdeburg
• 2007   IHF World Championship, with Poland
• 2009   IHF World Championship, with Poland
• 2009   Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2009   Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2010   Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2010   Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2011   Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2011   Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2012   Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2012   Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2013   Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2013   Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
• 2013   EHF Champions League, with Vive Targi Kielce

Involvement in politics, 2014–present

Wenta was a Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2014 European elections. In European Parliament, he served on the Committee on Culture and Education and on the Committee on Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the Parliament's delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2018, he quit his membership in the European Parliament after being elected as Mayor of Kielce in 2018 Polish local elections.

Other activities

• European Endowment for Democracy (EED), Member of the Board of Governors^[4]

Sporting achievements

Clubs

National championships

• 1981/1982   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1982/1983   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1983/1984   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1984/1985   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1985/1986   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1986/1987   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1987/1988   Polish Championship, with Wybrzeże Gdańsk
• 1990/1991   Spanish Cup, with Bidasoa Irún
• 1992/1993   Spanish Cup, with FC Barcelona
• 1993/1994   Spanish Championship, with FC Barcelona
• 1993/1994   Spanish Cup, with FC Barcelona
• 1994/1995   Spanish SuperCup 1994, with FC Barcelona
• 1998/1999   German SuperCup 1998, with TuS Nettelstedt-Lübbecke

National team

• 1998   European Championship

Individually

• 1990 ASOBAL League - The best pair of foreign players with Alfreð Gíslason
• 1991 ASOBAL League - The best pair of foreign players with Alfreð Gíslason
• 1990 ASOBAL League - Most Valuable Player
• 1991 ASOBAL League - Most Valuable Player
• 1995 ASOBAL League - Best Playmaker

State awards

• 2007   Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. . Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
2. Poland, Denmark take fifth, seventh places men's handball - china.org.cn - 24-08-2008
3. 75. Plebiscyt PS: Triumf Justyny Kowalczyk - mistrzowiesportu.pl - 09-01-2010
4. About EED European Endowment for Democracy (EED).

External links

Personal profile of Bogdan Wenta in the European Parliament's database of members

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bogdan Wenta.