Dinamo București

Bucharest's Ministry of Internal Affairs sports club gave the city a football team, a hockey side, and, from 1953, a handball section built by students of the Institute of Physical Education and Sport — Liță Cosma, Oprea Vlase and Gabriel Zugrăvescu among them.

That season was 1964–65. Dinamo beat Medveščak Zagreb 13–11 in the final of the European Champions Cup, a result no other Romanian club has matched before or since. Two years earlier they had come the other way, losing to Dukla Prague 15–13 after extra time, and third-place finishes followed in 1959, 1960, 1967 and 1979.

The domestic record needed no such qualification. Dinamo have taken the Liga Națională title 22 times, with Xavi Pascual leading the club through part of that recent run before Paulo Pereira took over.

Since 2013 the club has played at the Sala Polivalentă Dinamo in Sector 2, a ground that holds 2,538. Câinii Roșii, the Red Dogs, is how supporters know the club now.

None of it means as much in Bucharest as the fixture against Steaua București.