As Tim Freihöfer stood there with his boyish face and was supposed to classify his team’s performance, he seemed more like a student representative than one of the Berlin handball professionals who had just clearly defeated HC Erlangen, who were known to be strong at home. The left winger contributed four goals to the 35:27 away win, meaning the Füchse Berlin remain leaders in the strongest handball league in the world. Eight games, eight wins – the team has never started a season so well. What makes this fantastic series even more special is the fact that Berlin has to replace two of its best and most important players – and young talents like Freihöfer, 21, are unplanned to take on responsibility early on.
Captain Paul Drux tore his Achilles tendon in an international match against Sweden in April, and Fabian Wiede suffered a fracture to his right ankle two and a half weeks ago. Drux, 28, and Wiede, 29, have been missing since then; Both were also firmly planned for the national team by national coach Alfred Gislason for the important home European Championships next January. That won’t work, as Füchse managing director Bob Hanning definitely explained: “A participation in the European Championships is out of the question.”
Which brings us back to Freihöfer. He is one of the young Berliners who is playing so outstandingly that the absence of the two regulars in the national team has not been of any significance so far. Hanning made sure of this himself: In addition to Freihöfer and playmaker Nils Lichtlein, there were four U21 world champions on the floor against Erlangen: Matthes Langhoff, both also 21 years old, and Max Beneke, 20, and experienced national players such as Christoph Steinert and the Spaniard Gedeon Guardiola insoluble problems. Beneke only plays with the right to play a second game for the Füchsen, two days after the win in Erlangen he was the match winner for VfL Potsdam with 13 goals in the second division at TuS Vinnhorst.
The Dane Mathias Gidsel plays “simply amazing,” says Hanning
Potsdam’s coach is: Bob Hanning. This cooperation with Berlin is, so to speak, his child that is learning to walk better and better. In addition to Beneke, goalkeeper Lasse Ludwig, 21, and 19-year-old playmaker Moritz Sauter also have second-team rights; both were also top performers in the German U21 World Cup victory. Of course, the Foxes have more to offer than the highly talented German young talent, especially the Danish world champion Mathias Gidsel, undoubtedly one of the best handball players in the world at the moment.
“Simply amazing,” says Hanning about Gidsel’s game, it’s not for nothing that the left-hander leads the Bundesliga field goal scorer list with 65 goals. The backcourt player is extremely fast and tricky, dangerous to score from a distance and difficult to hold back in one-on-one situations. In addition, Serbian national goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev, 27, and his colleague Mijajlo Marsenic, 30, are in dazzling form at the circle.
Open detailed view
Boyish face for the future: U21 world champion Tim Freihöfer.
(Photo: Marco Wolf/Imago)
According to Hanning, this mixture of experience and youthful drive, coupled with great quality, is leading to the current wave of success: “It’s a mixture of many factors, good team chemistry, communication between each other, the experienced ones taking the young ones by the hand.” The experienced ones are top players like the Swedes Max Darj, 32, Lasse Andersson, 29, and Jerry Tollbring, 28, or the Croatian old international Marko Kopljar, 37. And of course the eternal Hans Lindberg, who is at the tender age of 42 continues to extend his Bundesliga goal record.
Sometimes, when his team is leading the way, Füchse coach Jaron Siewert brings all the experienced players off the table and only lets the 19 to 21 year olds play. The boys even extended their lead against Erlangen. The fantastic performances of the talents don’t surprise Hanning in the least; “trust” is the magic word: “We know how good they are. If you let them, they’ll show us.” What Hanning would also like to see in the national team, as he always says.
The title race is more open than ever, says Hanning. He doesn’t want to talk about goals until later
The managing director also had a hand in the coach’s career early on: Siewert came from the Füchse Academy, was a German youth champion, decided on a coaching career at the age of 20 – and was supported by Hanning. Siewert gained experience at second division club Essen before Hanning installed him as Füchse head coach three years ago. Now, at just 29 years old, Siewert is leading one of the most exciting handball projects in Europe. He classifies the current success soberly, you don’t “look at the table,” said Siewert on the streaming service Dyn. He sees his team “in a process,” and the top of the table is a nice snapshot, but he also expects setbacks.
The boss is happy to follow this classification: “Sure, we have a flow right now,” says Hanning, but there’s no reason to be euphoric: “In this league you’re always seven days away from a crisis. Every week.” Hanning cites TSV Hannover-Burgdorf as an example; hyped after a strong start to the season, the Lower Saxony team slipped into midfield after three defeats. The title race is more open than ever, says Hanning, and this time the usual suspects are joined by MT Melsungen, which is “doing a good job for the first time in eight years”. Six or seven clubs will fight for the championship title, Champions League winner Magdeburg is a candidate, as are Kiel and Flensburg, but both have to deal with upheavals.
The next tough challenge awaits the Berliners on Thursday, when cup winners Rhein-Neckar Löwen will be visiting the capital. And the Foxes’ goal for the season? Hanning groans: “Oh, it makes no sense to formulate goals now.” His players are currently giving him a lot of joy “with the way they play. It’s just fun to watch.”
