Nomination: Gislason relies on Olympic heroes at the Handball World Cup

With 14 Olympic heroes and a total of 19 players, national coach Alfred Gislason is preparing for the 2025 Handball World Cup. The squad for the finals from January 14th to February 2nd next year is led by captain Johannes Golla and veteran goalkeeper Andreas Wolff .

“We rebuilt the team extremely strongly two and a half years ago. The young players have gained a lot of experience, shown a lot of character and have grown together into a team. This year has given this talented team a lot of self-confidence,” said Gislason when introducing the squad Dortmund and announced for the title fights: “I believe that we can play a good tournament. The boys will give everything.”

The minimum goal is the World Cup quarter-finals

The minimum goal of the Olympic silver medalist at the tournament in Denmark, Croatia and Norway is the quarter-finals. “We have a powerful squad with which we will start preparing on January 3rd and want to attack at the World Cup,” said DHB sports director Ingo Meckes.

Gislason relies on proven forces. Of the silver medalists in Paris, only Kai Häfner, who ended his selection career after the Summer Games, and Tim Hornke are missing after a long injury absence. On the other hand, Christoph Steinert is in the squad despite a broken metacarpal hand that he suffered around five weeks ago.

The proven squad is completed by Lukas Zerbe, Timo Kastening, Franz Semper, Nils Lichtlein and the third goalkeeper Joel Birlehm. Formally, the World Cup squad only has to be named at the technical meeting on the morning of January 15th, the day of Germany’s opening game against Poland. Gislason can then nominate up to 18 players, from which 16 players must be selected for each game.

In addition to Poland, the DHB selection will also face Switzerland and the Czech Republic in the preliminary round of the World Cup. The three best teams in the group reach the main round.