Marian Cozma not forgotten
Marian Cozma not forgotten
Football and handball rarely cross each other’s way. However, due to the tragic death of Marian Cozma, who was killed on 8 February this year, the Football Federation of Hungary and Romania decided to remember the handball player with an international football friendly between the national teams of the two countries.
Marian Cozma, the Romanian international handballer, was an extremely popular player of the Hungarian top club MKB Veszprém. His death triggered unprecedented emotions in both countries. Not only the handball community, but also the wider society showed compassion, anger, frustration and deep sorrow in the days and months after the tragic incident.
On 12 August in the Puskás Stadium of Budapest, 20,000 fans and the football national teams of Hungary and Romania paid tribute to Marian Cozma. The national teams were led on the pitch before the game by the father of the handballer Petre Cozma. The giant image of the player was placed in the middle of the football pitch and the players lined up for a minute of silence wearing t-shirts condemning violence and remembering Marian Cozma.
Petre Cozma was escorted by football and handball top officials to the middle circle and received jerseys from the two team captains, Hajnal and Chivu. The crowd stood up and chanted the name of Cozma. Later he thanked the support:
”These were very difficult minutes for me. I still feel enormous pain, but I would like to thank the Romanian and the Hungarian national teams for trying to ease this pain.”
After these moving minutes, a football friendly followed in the memory of Marian Cozma that ended with a 1-0 Romanian victory.
