Thursday, August 12, 2021
Change in the DHB team
Hardly criticized Captain Gensheimer resigns
The German national handball team is facing a radical change. After the disappointing performance at the Olympic Games, captain Uwe Gensheimer leaves the team. Steffen Weinhold will also no longer appear for the DHB. Other players want to at least pause.
Captain Uwe Gensheimer has announced his resignation from the national handball team after the disappointing Olympic tournament. In addition, national coach Alfred Gislason will have to do without other veterans in the future, as the German Handball Federation (DHB) announced. In addition to Gensheimer, backcourt player Steffen Weinhold (THW Kiel) is no longer available, defense chief Hendrik Pekeler (THW Kiel) wants to take a longer break from the national team and leaves future missions for the DHB selection open. Goalkeeper oldie Johannes Bitter (HSV Hamburg) only wants to step in in an emergency after missing the Olympic medal in Japan.
“It was a childhood dream to become a national player,” said Gensheimer: “To wear the eagle on my chest and to be captain has always been a huge honor for me.” And further: “I look back on a long time with the German Handball Federation with pride and gratitude and I will never forget the experiences associated with it.” The 34-year-old is continuing his club career. Apart from a three-year assignment for Paris St. Germain, he spent all of this with the Lions.
DHB President Andreas Michelmann thanked all players. “All four are faces of our sport, have excited the audience and motivated many children,” he said.
No more regular players at the Olympics
The national team is facing a personnel change. The 34-year-old from Gensheim last only played a minor role at the tournament in Tokyo, mostly Marcel Schiller instead. Before that, however, he was one of the pillars of the team for years. After his international debut in November 2005, he celebrated his greatest success in the DHB jersey in 2016 when he won bronze with the team at the Olympics in Rio.
At the World Cup in Qatar in January, he had to take criticism when he resisted evaluations of his performance. He couldn’t play to his world-class potential. Maybe it’s too much for him: being an important player and captain of the team. His body language amazes me, “said Markus Baur, DHB captain for the 2007 German World Cup title, the” Stuttgarter Zeitung “and the” Stuttgarter Nachrichten “, sowing doubts as to whether Gensheimer is still the right person in his role as captain The 34-year-old resisted harshly, also by means of an association message: “I find the constant external criticism disrespectful and a lack of appreciation. What is brought to our national team from outside in no way corresponds to my values or the cohesion and spirit of our team, “Gensheimer is quoted in it, to which the DHB felt compelled.
Although he went to the Olympics as the captain of Gislason, he mostly came to short stakes for seven meters from the bench. The loss of world-class defender Pekeler and backcourt specialist Weinhold is more serious for the national coach, and the 38-year-old Bitter is still one of the best German goalkeepers.
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