Steaua Bucuresti

Bucharest's army club built its handball section the way it built most of its sports programme after 1949, as a branch of the CSA Steaua organisation attached to the Romanian military, and within a generation it had turned into the country's dominant force in the sport. The team started out in 11-a-side handball before the club set up a 7-a-side section in 1958.

That run coincided with two European Champions Cup wins, in 1967–68 against Dukla Prague and in 1976–77 against CSKA Moscow, with two further final defeats in between.

The rivalry that still defines the club's calendar dates from the same era. Steaua answered to the army, Dinamo București to the police, and their meetings were given a name of their own, the Marele Derby.

The club has not always played under its current name. It went from ASA to CCA before settling on Steaua in 1961, and returned to CSA Steaua București in 2017 after a spell as Steaua Alexandrion. Steaua now plays its home matches at the Sala Polivalentă, holding 5,300.