Don’t feel like celebrating
Handball players reject politics
January 28, 2024, 3:03 p.m
The bronze medal at the home European Championship would be a great success for Germany’s national handball team, the biggest in eight years. But the celebrations shouldn’t be too big even in this case. The DHB team rejects Cologne politics.
The German national handball team can still achieve great things at the home European Championship, which ends in the afternoon: The DHB team is playing against defending champions Sweden for third place and direct qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer. With a win the hosts would secure the bronze medal. It would be the biggest success for the association since the Olympic bronze medal in 2016. However, they wouldn’t want to celebrate too much, the DHB explained a few minutes before the big game.
Henriette Reker, non-party mayor of the city of Cologne, where the German team is playing for the bronze medal, invited the DHB entourage to a reception in the town hall after the bitter semi-final defeat against Denmark (26:29) in the event of a victory in the final game . The team has now rejected this: “We really appreciate the mayor’s invitation, but such a reception doesn’t feel right to us for a number of reasons,” said Johannes Golla, captain of the German national handball team.
“Our big task is to thank the fans for their support in the game for third place against Sweden by once again bringing everything we have into the field. Bronze would be a great finish, but We are not at the end of our journey. That’s why we don’t belong to such a reception yet.”
Another factor for the cancellation was the great physical strain on the players, at least some of whom were already playing their eleventh game this year. The association announced that the decision was made on Saturday evening – “and we accept the players’ clearly stated wishes,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer. “Ultimately, this also speaks for the will of this team to achieve maximum success in the future.”
By reaching the semi-finals, the German team had already celebrated a great success that many experts did not believe they could achieve in advance. However, participation in the medal games was also a clear goal for the team. In the semi-finals they gave the big favorites Denmark a big fight, but in the end they narrowly lost.