The Handball Bundesliga will welcome a newcomer next season: 1. VfL Potsdam will play in the 1st league for the first time. The promotion is already perfect before the end of the season. For handball coach Bob Hanning, this also has very personal consequences.
Party on the one hand – big challenges on the other. 1. VfL Potsdam is promoted to the handball Bundesliga. A great success for the Brandenburg team, they were promoted from the 3rd league just two years ago. After the 43:28 victory against TV Großwallstadt in the home arena, the players jumped over the table in a correspondingly exuberant manner, formed a cheering bunch and popped the champagne corks. There are still three match days to go, which are just an extra for the youngest team in the league – twelve players were born after 2000.
And who knew that beforehand? The team’s coach. This is none other than Bob Hanning. Handball strategist, self-confident power figure who often offends with revolutionary ideas. The team’s WhatsApp group is called “Promotion 2024” even before the start of the season.
But when the climb is complete, Hanning remains completely calm. “We did well,” he says to his assistant coach on the sidelines. He doesn’t jump along, he enjoys the cheering spectacle from a distance. A spectacle that also presents him with a problem. As is well known, Bob Hanning is also the managing director of the Bundesliga club Füchse Berlin. This means that “his” two clubs will meet on the table next season. And that means a huge advantage is gone.
Potsdamer with second game rights for Füchse
The two teams have been collaborating since 2013. Young talents are provided with contracts and second game rights in order to gain experience with Potsdam. If there are too many absences for the Berliners or if some players need to be spared in the tight schedule with the Bundesliga, DHB Cup and European League, the boys are thrown in and can prove themselves in the Füchse jersey.
This will no longer be possible in the future, although the cooperation will continue. But several Potsdam players will permanently switch to the Foxes. Take the path that Nils Lichtlein, among others, has already taken, who now plays for the German national team. The outstanding player of the season, Max Benecke, is moving up for the new season. The U21 world champion has already scored 68 goals in 31 appearances this season. And goalkeeper Lasse Ludwig, who became world champion with him, is also moving to the capital. He will form the team with the best goalkeeper in the Bundesliga, Dejan Milosavljev.
“There are new challenges that we have to solve differently,” said Hanning. This also applies to him, after all, he cannot compete with “his” Potsdam team against “his” Berlin team. Therefore, he makes it clear early on that he is stepping down from his coaching position. “I want to put my boys in good hands. All that’s left is to sign the contract and then we’ll announce the new guy in a few days,” he said after the success of “Bild”.
The newspaper speculates that a handball celebrity could take over his legacy: Torsten Jansen. The 2007 world champion trains HSV, but they do not receive a license to remain in the league. Hanning once discovered Jansen, trained him in the A youth team in Essen, and later they were promoted together with Solingen from the 3rd to the 1st league.
Team Germany in Potsdam?
But Hanning probably won’t stay out of it completely; the busy 56-year-old has too many ideas. In January he presented the plan for a “Team Germany”. Potsdam could – similar to the volleyball of VC Olympia Berlin, which cannot be relegated – become a team with Germany’s greatest talents, who can then play against the top stars. Because the Bundesliga is the strongest league in the world and the top stars play in Germany, the young talent doesn’t get enough of a chance for Hanning’s taste. “This is a huge opportunity for handball,” he said, also with a view to the home World Cup in 2027, where a strong German team should be at the start.
He tells “Bild” that no one has signed up for the project so far. But it remains the “offer to the league, I won’t be angry or annoyed if no one comes forward and no one wants to take part. Then we can do it on our own.” Hanning doesn’t want to commit to whether Potsdam can survive in the Bundesliga. “One thing is certain, Potsdam will have the lowest budget of all teams in the first league, but will play with a lot of talent, heart and passion.”
Either way, he is proud of “his” boys. “It’s nice how they have developed as people. I guided and accompanied them through puberty; now they have become great, grown-up men with whom I can now have very good conversations about many topics outside of sport. ” And who knows, the Potsdam team might annoy their current coach a little next season. Despite the cooperation, there should be “no stable orders, we’re not in Formula 1,” said Hanning. “The boys were allowed to step up and then they can beat the Foxes if they can.”
That will be tough, however, because the Berliners are second in the table behind the outstanding SC Magdeburg and will most likely qualify for the Champions League. With Mathias Gidsel they also have the world handball player in their ranks. However, the fact that the Dane is only 25 years old should be a great incentive to emulate him.