“We had a first discussion”

• The European Women's Handball Championship takes place between December 3-20, 2026. Romania will be one of the hosts of the competition, along with Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey. The matches in Romania will take place in Oradea and Cluj-Napoca;

• Romania is in European Group B, along with Norway, Switzerland and North Macedonia.

Crina Pintea finished with 5 goals in the small final in Budapest, with Brest, and her performance led the Romanian coach to try to bring her back to the squad for the final tournament this winter. A year ago, Pintea declared that the 2026-2027 competitive season would be the last of her career.

The pivot has not been with the national team since the end of 2023, when he announced that he was retiring from the Romanian team, and the coach Mihăilă is optimistic that he will make her change her mind and will manage to have her under his command at the European.

Crina Pintea could return to the national team

“Obviously all of us, including the girls from CSM Bucharest, wanted the 1st place, but in the end let's look at the glass half full, because I notice that many people forget that CSM has not been to the Final Four in Budapest for eight years. Metz waited for this League for 10 years.

It's not easy to go there and, that's it, you've won the Champions League. Do not forget that the CSM obtained this qualification in extremis. And this was largely due to Mrs. Bojana Popovic. I consider her a very good coach.

I liked how Crina Pintea played in these matches and I can tell you that I want to convince her to return to the Romanian national team. I am convinced that Crina Pintea's experience will help Romania a lot at the EC.

I had a first discussion with her, it seemed to me that she was receptive and open to my intention, and I hope that in the end I will convince her to return to the national team. We need a player of her worth. It is clear that after the withdrawals of Cristina Neagu and Crina Pintea from the national team – Neagu then withdrew from the activity altogether, Romania's strength decreased further.

Messrs. Pera and Burcea started a reconstruction, I joined the national team, but we need time to return to where we all want to be. I repeat: I hope to convince Crina to agree to return to the national team, because she can still help us”, said the selector Ovidiu Mihăilă, quoted by prosport.ro.

Pintea also left the door open for the national team

After the disappointment caused by missing the participation in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, in December 2023 Crina Pintea announced through a post on her Facebook page that she was retiring from the national team.

End of story… I am grateful for everything I have experienced. I am grateful for the people I have met and learned so much from. I am grateful for all the smiles I gave them through what I did on the field.

I'm grateful for all the times people made me smile even when I wasn't able to. A journey full of emotion, joy, pain and lessons, but it is the most beautiful journey. I am deeply grateful for everything!

– Crina Pintea, on December 12, 2023

In the spring of this year, however, Pintea hinted that the decision to withdraw was not final and that anything could happen. She was the one who did not rule out a return to the national team.

“I haven't retired from the national team. And you never know what can happen. So I just want to be healthy. I have one more year to play besides this season. I really like the way the national team is looking now.

Girls have value and I think they can go even higher, but we need to take care of them. It's normal that the national team can compete with Norway, because always when everything was against us, we found resources there and gave everything on the field. But we have to be realistic, because Norway fights every year for medals”, said Pintea, quoted by agerpres.ro.