He is only 25 years old, but it is already his sixth tournament for the German Handball Association (DHB). Of course, this is due to the inflationary number of tournaments in handball. But also because Julian Köster showed remarkable precocity and Bundestrainer Alfred Gíslason was invited to the national team in November 2021 as a second division player from VfL Gummersbach.
Now Köster is one of the indispensable players at the DHB. He comes from the rare breed of playmakers who can also play in central defense. There, men weighing 120 kilograms are worked to the point of exhaustion.
Hostage son loves his star student because of his versatility. He would like to let him play all the time. On the one hand, this clashes with Köster’s limited physical abilities and, on the other hand, with a squad that has more good players than ever before.
This became after the Preliminary round defeat against Serbia a threatening scenario on Saturday. Köster’s rival Juri Knorr criticized the national coach because he let him, Knorr, play too little and others too much – without naming names. Handball suddenly experienced football-like tabloid dimensions this European Championship in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Crisis as an opportunity
But instead of dividing and weakening the team, the team spoke up internally and turned the crisis into an opportunity – with full focus on the next game against Spain. That won Hostage sons group won convincingly 34:32 on Monday evening in Herning and is now in the main round starting on Thursday with the likely opponents Denmark, Norway, Portugal and France.
As justified as the criticism of his player management was on Saturday, it did a good job Hostage son two days later – every change was right. Flanged to the now experienced Köster-Knorr-Uščins axis, the others were able to shine because these three had a creamy evening: Köster (25, six goals from ten attempts) played courageously and powerfully, Knorr (25, five goals from ten attempts) led carefully, Uščins (23, eight goals from ten attempts) scored as he wanted.
That was a non-issue. Alfred’s ego was not hurt
National player Juri Knorr on his coaching criticism
Knorr had publicly called for more playing time. He got that. He filled every single minute courageously and carefully. He later took the opportunity to explain a supposed rift between him and Hostage son to eliminate the lack of minutes played: “That was a non-issue. I asked him about it and said that I didn’t want to criticize him. That wasn’t a problem at all. Alfred his ego wasn’t hurt. That helped me as a person.” Hostage son confirmed this: “He came to me after the Serbia game. Half a sentence was taken out of his interview. I had no problem with it at all.”
Semifinals as a goal
Before the tournament, the team confidently set the semi-finals as their goal. And that’s how it played. The score was 7:5 and 12:9 to lead by 17:15 at the break. Spain is in transition, the Dujshebaev brothers are no longer as fresh as they used to be after many injuries and years of constant use, and – a very crucial point: Bundesliga sovereign Sergey Hernández (SC Magdeburg) in goal practically didn’t touch a ball. Nevertheless, the Spaniards came within 25:24 in the 48th minute. The German defense – now with David Späth in goal – was tired and had gaps. But the game didn’t end because the front continued with concentration and determination. Uščins, Köster, Knorr, everyone scored.
The big sigh of relief on Tuesday morning turned directly into anticipation. Because now the high-speed artists in red and white are waiting for the Germans in front of 15,000 fans in (largely) the same colors. “We are the big underdog against Denmark,” said Knorr. He has been playing at Aalborg HB two hours further north since the summer of 2025: “This has been my home crowd for the past six months. Nothing is lost for us even if we lose. We had luck on our side.”
In this case, luck was a cipher for Austria: its southern neighbor had defeated Serbia; The Germans then bowled the Southeast Europeans out of the tournament. The DHB selection will take two points from the Spain game into the next four games. There are some indications that the game against France on January 28th will be a kind of quarter-final – assuming that the Danes make it to the semi-finals as the first in the group. It’s up to Julian Köster that the Germans stay in the draw. And on Alfred Hostage sons learning progress.