EHF Excellence Awards 2024: Petra Simon and Martim Costa named as best young players

Hungarian Petra Simon and Portugal’s Martim Costa have been selected as the EHF Excellence Awards Young Players of the Season after outstanding performances throughout 2023/24.

Simon and Costa will be honoured and receive their awards at the EHF Excellence Awards 2024 gala on 14 December in Vienna, Austria. They follow in the footsteps of last year’s young stars, France’s Pauletta Foppa and Slovenian Domen Makuc.

Petra Simon: MVP and gold medalist

Centre back Petra Simon, who is 20 years old, made her debut for FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria’s first senior team in 2022, but spent the 2022/23 season on loan. After rejoining FTC at the start of 2023/24 she made her EHF Champions League debut, scoring 39 goals in total across the season – including five across the two quarter-finals against Team Esbjerg.

FTC secured the Hungarian championship and cup in 2023/24 too, with Simon a key part of the roster.

For her country, Simon helped Hungary to win the Women’s 19 EHF EURO 2023, and was named MVP of the tournament and All-star centre back. In the final she played a key role, scoring eight times and dishing five assists. Since then, Simon was selected for Hungary’s senior national team, participating at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship and at the EHF EURO Cup en route to the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. 

Martim Costa: All-star player and top scorer

At the age of only 21, Costa was the joint top scorer — alongside Dane Mathias Gidsel — at the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 in Germany. He scored 54 goals and missed just 12 shots across the seven matches played by Portugal in the tournament. Costa was named All-star Team left back at the EHF EURO, in which Portugal finished seventh. 

Costa also played a key role for his club, Sporting CP, as they reached the quarter-finals of the EHF European League Men. For a third consecutive year, he scored over 50 goals, reaching a total of 62 across the season. Sporting also won the Portuguese championships and cup in 2023/24.

Both young players have previously been a part of the EHF’s ‘Respect Your Talent’ programme, which identifies up-and-coming handball stars and supports them in their career development on and off the playing court.