“Today we saw how hard we still have to work to be able to beat the top teams,” said Slovenian handball player Tjasa Stanko after the 16:35 defeat against Germany. If the German players had heard that, they would have said: Wait, top team, who, us?
“Unfortunately, we were not able to produce the performances at this European Championship that we needed to beat the big teams,” said German backcourt player Mareike Thomaier after the success in Germany’s last game at the European Championships. Neither the overwhelming victory nor the statement from Slovenia’s Stanko could hide the fact that Germany was not a top team at this tournament either. There were clear defeats against the major handball nations: 22:29 against the Netherlands, 22:30 against Denmark and 27:32 against Norway. The clear victories against Ukraine, Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia only made up for this to a limited extent. In the end, only seventh place remained for the German team.
:It wasn’t the defense
Xenia Smits is one of the best defenders at the European Championships, she blocks most of the throws – but the Germans are already over in the main round. The gap to the top nations is clearly too great.
Size is always a matter of perspective. For the Slovenians, Germany was a big team on Wednesday – but for Germany the really big teams are Norway, France and Denmark. The selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) has been keen to join this group for several years, but it simply hasn’t worked out so far. Sometimes she was closer to the semi-finals in the annual alternating European Championship and World Cup tournaments, sometimes less close. Definitely less this time.
The fact that the new sports director Ingo Meckes, who has only been in office for three months, said afterwards with a grin that “we are not in danger of standing out in any way” can probably be chalked up to Swabian humor. The handball manager, who previously worked in Switzerland for a long time, can also be forgiven for allowing himself to be carried away with a sentence that has been heard far too often about German handball players in recent years. Meckes said: “I think we have a lot of potential.” Because that’s exactly what it’s been about for years: when all the potential will finally be reflected in a really good placement at a big tournament.
Association President Andreas Michelmann criticized on Wednesday evening that the players themselves had raised high expectations with great ambitions. “Sometimes I wish we wouldn’t make so many jokes before the tournaments, but rather deliver the performance on the floor – like we did against Slovenia,” said Michelmann: “Maybe we should be more reserved before a tournament.”
The problem is not the players, but the structures
However, the president explicitly defended the team and its performance as well as the national coach Markus Gaugisch: “The performances against the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway are the results of 20 years of non-development in the German Handball Association – we can’t blame the players and the coach for that “You have to finally create structures that allow you to keep up with the best nations.
Within a year, however, not enough will be able to change structurally for the German players to be world class at the home World Cup in Germany and the Netherlands from November 26th to December 14th, 2025. Ideally, Michelmann still imagines that the team can reach the final weekend in Rotterdam with the necessary support from the big crowd in the preliminary round in Stuttgart and from the main round in Dortmund. “With the footballers nine months before the home European Championships, no one would have bet a cent that they would deliver such a European Championship,” says Michelmann: “A home tournament like this is always a different story.”
After the European Championships, in which the German players, among other things, lacked skill in finishing on goal, hopes are also focused on the young backcourt players Viola Leuchter, 20, and Nina Engel, 21. Leuchter from Ludwigsburg missed most of the games at the European Championships due to illness , then the Bensheimer Engel jumped into the breach. “I hope that we can inspire a lot of people at the World Cup next year,” says Nina Engel and with this hope she delivers a sentence that not even the president can find fault with.
:“There is a lot of potential in the team”
In 1993, Germany’s handball players won World Cup gold. Andrea Bölk was part of the team – now her daughter Emily is fighting for World Cup medals. A conversation about German opportunities, the lack of TV presence for sports and life in a sports family.
“Why have we never achieved more?”
Since 2008 (European Championships, fourth place), Germany’s handball players have not made it to the semi-finals of any European or World Championships. Collected reactions from 16 years:
“A psychologist would be needed.” (National coach Rainer Osmann after the preliminary round exit at the 2010 European Championships)
“We simply weren’t good enough.” (National coach Heine Jensen after 17th place at the 2011 World Cup)
“We lost our heads in the end.” (Player Laura Steinbach after the quarter-final defeat against Denmark at the 2013 World Cup)
“If you look at all the last few years and all the potential we had and have in this team, then you sometimes ask yourself: Why have we never achieved more?” (Player Anja Althaus after tenth place at the 2014 European Championships )
“This young German team will still be talked about.” (Norway coach Thorir Hergeirsson after the victory in the round of 16 against Germany at the 2015 World Cup)
“That went terribly wrong.” (Sports director Wolfgang Sommerfeld after the defeat in the round of 16 against Denmark at the home World Cup in 2017)
“With a little time, something will definitely come of our team.” (Player Emily Bölk after ninth place at the 2018 European Championships)
“That was just embarrassing.” (Goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle after the 24:35 defeat against Sweden in the game for 7th place at the 2019 World Cup)
“Women’s handball has been neglected here for 20 years, there is a lack of structural stability.” DHB-(President Andreas Michelmann after seventh place at the 2020 European Championships)
“Unfortunately, I know this situation all too well.” (Player Meike Schmelzer after the quarter-final defeat against Sweden at the 2023 World Cup)
“This tournament could have helped to realize: Okay, at the moment we are in seventh place and not third.” DHB-(President Andreas Michelmann after seventh place at the 2024 European Championship)
