The coach of the German national handball team has made a name for himself as a guy who spares neither himself nor his players and certainly not his opponent. But after a stroke of fate, the tough dog from Iceland discovered his soft side at the age of 63. At the World Cup, Alfred Gislason is completely renewed.
As a player and later also as a coach, Alfred Gislason was the epitome of the type that is often dubbed the “tough dog” in handball circles. One who spares neither himself nor his opponents and also governs his players with an iron fist. In his book “Hölleluja!”, the former national player Stefan Kretzschmar reports how he suffered from a herniated disc at the beginning of the millennium during the time they spent together in Magdeburg, when the left winger and the successful coach brought the championship trophy and the Champions League trophy to the Börde labored, which made him suffer hell. A finding that Gislason quickly denied. He nominated Kretzschmar despite the pain and even substituted him.
Icelanders would most certainly not allow themselves such a ruthless approach these days. At the age of 63, the tough dog has discovered his soft side, the appearance of the man, who has been directing the German national team as national coach for three years, is during the World Cup in Poland and Sweden, where the German team meets France in the quarterfinals in Gdansk ( 8.30 p.m. on ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de), remarkable in every respect.
“Working closely with young people keeps you on your toes”
His tenure as national coach began in a sportingly complicated manner, Gislason has operated almost permanently in crisis mode since taking office in 2020, and the pandemic made it almost impossible to continuously build a team for a long time. Privately, the Icelander experienced severe blows of fate. In March, after qualifying for the Olympics, he published a letter in which a right-wing muddlehead threatened a “visit” if Gislason did not vacate his post for a German national coach. “After a total of almost 30 years in Germany, it was the first time that I was threatened in this great country,” wrote Gislason, the solidarity from sport was overwhelming.
In May 2021 his wife Kara-Gudrun died of cancer. The two have known each other since he was 12 and have been married for 40 years. His first reaction to the doctors’ diagnosis that the chemotherapy was no longer producing any results either was: “I’ll call Axel Kromer, quit – and we’ll then go to Iceland and spend the time that Kara has left together in Iceland.” , he told “Sport Bild” looking back on the devastating diagnosis. But his wife stopped him. “The players knew that Kara was ill. Over time, they also heard that she was getting worse.” When she died, Gislason said on RTL: “It was a shock how quickly it went.”
Only a few months later he traveled to the Olympic Games in Tokyo and finished sixth with the team. “During this time, handball was very important to me. Especially when you work closely with young people, it keeps you on your toes and alive,” he told the sports information service. “It makes life beautiful when you can help young people advance in their sport and on their path in life. Everything turned out differently than I thought, but life goes on.”
He got through the difficult times, extended his contract with the DHB and found a new love. Author and director Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir actually only asked him for an interview, it turned out “that her father was my assistant coach on my first international trip with the senior national team,” he told the “Welt” earlier this week. They met for dinner, “that’s how it started”.
Still under power on the sidelines
In Poland at the World Cup, the media professionals are now experiencing a completely renewed Gislason. He no longer acts curtly and abruptly, instead he smiles and answers the questions eloquently and authoritatively. That didn’t change after the first bankruptcy against Norway, although the defeat was annoying because it was avoidable. He hopes “that we will see each other again in this tournament,” said Gislason with a broad grin to his Norwegian colleague Jonas Wille. A reunion could only happen in the final.
The national coach described the next match against the title favorites from France as “the most difficult game ever. We have to have an outstanding day to survive.” But even a retirement would not throw the veteran out of balance. His players and those close to him report in unison how relaxed Gislason is in his mission and how much that rubs off on everyone involved. Erik Wudtke, who as an assistant coach works particularly closely with the boss on the bench, experiences the national coach as “relaxed and at peace”. At least when there are no games coming up.
During the 60 minutes, Gislason could continue to mutate into the Icelandic volcano from which to erupt if things don’t go his way. “He’s energized, but that goes without saying,” says Wudtke. The ease he radiates the rest of the time is “not played. He’s happy about the things that the players succeed in.” The sovereignty of old age is reflected in an “enormous self-confidence. And that, in turn, reflects on the team.” Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff adds “that Alfred, with his incredible experience, manages to give us a certain composure”.
“Play what you want”
It’s a mutual give and take that, according to Wudtke, “is a key to the team’s performance to date.” The interplay culminated during the game against Argentina in the second round, when the German selection took their opponents to pieces with every trick in the book, in a remarkable announcement from the coach during a break: “Play what you want,” Gislason told his players. An anarchist approach that would have been unthinkable in this form before. One, however, that not everyone should have heard, says Gislason in the “Welt”: “But I forgot that there was a microphone. That doesn’t happen to me often.” At that moment, with this comfortable lead behind him, it was the “greatest possible expression of trust,” reports Wudtke. True to the motto: “You guys are in a flow and you play so well that you succeed in everything anyway.”
Backcourt player Paul Drux also noticed “that Alfred is experiencing his first big tournament as national coach here, which is really only about handball.” No games in front of empty ranks, no days of chaos like at the European Championships in Bratislava last year, when a total of 18 corona cases in the squad threw all plans overboard – just defense, attack, counterattack and second wave. “It’s good for all of us,” says the professional from Füchsen Berlin, and his manager exudes this lightness of being “at every training session.” In the fall of a long and immensely successful coaching career, Gislason noted that “he’s better at switching off and enjoying things”.
“A very, very happy national coach”
The trainer’s power center is just outside Magdeburg: Wendgräben, a place where just 32 people live. Here, more than 20 years ago, Gislason and his wife Kara-Gudrun bought a derelict farm that was so dilapidated that trees grew through the roof. Today, the domicile in the English country house style is a real gem and also a biotope to which Gislason withdraws to recharge his batteries: “Here I have my peace, similar to Iceland,” he reported to the “Welt am Sonntag”. “The area around the farm is a nature reserve, everything is very beautiful. Just how I want it to be.”
At the World Cup, too, things have been going almost according to plan so far. Losing to Norway annoyed Gislason because he would have preferred to play against Spain in the quarter-finals. Whether this game would actually be easier is far from certain. Now the DHB team has to stand up to the Olympic champion and record world champion France. Whether his newfound composure will last remains to be seen. Before he said: “I am a very, very happy national coach.”