Right back Mathias Gidsel, world champion with Denmark, was elected best world handball player of the year 2023 and Léna Grandveau, revelation of the World Cup won by the Bleues, best young person (-23 years old) among women, was announced this Friday the International Handball Federation. Gidsel, aged 25, was voted best player of the 2023 World Cup won by the Danes, winners in the final in Stockholm of the France team (34-29).
He also finished top scorer in the competition and, that year, won the European League, the second continental club competition, with Berlin. Gidsel, crowned for the first time, succeeds his compatriot Niklas Landin, elected best player in the world 2021. Note that the title had not been awarded for 2022.
Among the women, the Norwegian Henny Reistad was elected after reaching the final of the World Cup, beaten in Herning (Denmark) by the French (31-28) with notably Léna Grandveau in their ranks. The 21-year-old Nantes player scored the last four goals for Les Bleues in this final, in an unusual right-back position. She usually plays center half at the conclusion of a competition where she will have burst the screen.
Among the men, the title of best young person of the year 2023 was awarded to Kiel center-half Elias Ellefsen (21), top scorer of the Junior World Cup and who helped qualify the Faroe Islands for their first competition at the Euro 2024.
There were two French people among those nominated for the title of best player and player of the year: Ludovic Fabregas, 2023 world vice-champion and Estelle Nze Minko, captain of the world champions. Neither was chosen. The recent European coronation of the Blues was logically not taken into account for the vote for the year 2023. The option of not choosing the captain of the world champion team the same year seems more questionable.
The last Frenchman elected “best player in the world” remains Nikola Karabatic, crowned for the last time in 2016 after having been in 2007 and 2014. Since 2016, the title has no longer eluded a Danish player. Among the ladies, the last (and only) French woman honored was Alisson Pineau in 2009.
