German handball players before the European Championships: Fresher and more enthusiastic

In January they regularly become Germany’s sports favorites and can even compete with football in terms of viewing figures – but if you spend an hour with them at the German Handball Association’s media day, you will see normal boys, not outlandish sports stars with large tattoos, embarrassing hairstyles and fat cars.

Everyone defines “normal” for themselves, of course. However, anyone who has ever played in a team will immediately recognize the prototypes: There are the jokers (Justus Fischer and David Späth), there is the cheeky one (Marko Grgic), there are the machine oil types (Jannik Kohlbacher and Rune Dahmke). Above them are the untouchables: Johannes Golla, Julian Köster, Juri Knorr and Andreas Wolff. “Untouchable” refers to performance. Not the aura.

You talk to the three of them about this and that without feeling anxious about the banality of the answers. Only world-class goalkeeper Wolff is a bit strange, excludes any answer to a cautious private question (“Do you miss your family during the European Championships?”). A simple “Yes!” would have been enough.

That’s what they are like, the German handball players. At the top of the organizational chart there is someone who talks, laughs and jokes with everyone during such appointments. Alfred Gislason is not a grumpy Icelander at all. He has been interested in Eastern European history for decades, and his girlfriend is a consultant on sustainability issues. You can also talk to him about music. There are no internal spacers.

Only difficult opponents

Everyone knows what they have in each other when they start this 17th European Handball Championship. The game will be played in Denmark, Sweden and Norway starting this Thursday.

Gislason, 66, has been the boss for five years. It’s his team. With his discoveries like Köster, Grgic and now defender Tom Kiesler. This group is ambitious and confident going into a tournament that, starting with Austria, only has complicated opponents to offer: Serbia, Spain in the preliminary round, then – the first two advance – in that order (if they win the group) Denmark, France, Norway and Portugal. “We have fantastic opponents. Even one defeat can cost us the semi-finals,” says Gislason.

The new width should pave the way to the final round. Berlin playmaker Nils Lichtlein was injured in training on Monday and is expected to miss at least for the time being, but even without him Gislason would be spoiled for choice, especially in the left backfield. “We have a waiting list,” he says. He can also switch blocks in defense without any loss of quality. Gislason tried this out in the test match victories against Croatia, although the German pattern is essentially simple: it will be easiest if the goalkeepers Wolff and Späth are as outstanding as they were in the tests.

The whole team seems fresher and more enthusiastic than a year ago. Many came to the DHB with a cold or cough, suffered from injuries, and dragged themselves through the tournament. It ended with a narrow quarter-final defeat against Portugal. That was a disappointment, as the Germans had won the Olympic silver medal six months earlier. “Back then we thought we could win our games with 90 percent,” says captain Golla. “In the end we were extremely annoyed because despite a mediocre game against Portugal we would have progressed and reach a semi-final for the third time in a row.“

All players emphasize how good the five weeks of vacation in the summer of 2025 would have been. However, Magdeburg left winger Lukas Mertens also says: “I got back into handball so quickly that such a break doesn’t last long.” Mertens is one of the most frequent players in the German team. He worries about the burden. He doesn’t want to be misunderstood; Other jobs are “much, much harder,” but especially as a young father, he now clearly sees the many weeks away from the family with a teary eye.

If they start successfully, the big events always have something of a school trip for the German handball players. On Tuesday they traveled to the team hotel in Silkeborg, 40 minutes from the Jyske Bank Boxen venue. You know it from last year; At that time the World Cup also took place in Herning. The rooms have now been renovated – and hopefully there will be enough breakfast. That was a problem in 2025. The Danes promised improvement.