Five days of “like in a full wash cycle” are over. Andy Schmid finds time for a coffee in Malmö. First the dramatic draw against the Faroe Islands, then the defeat after a nine-goal lead against Slovenia. At the end of the preliminary round in Oslo, the pressure of having to win against Montenegro, which his team withstood confidently at 43:26: “That was from heaven to hell and back,” says Schmid, the 42-year-old coach of the Swiss national handball team.
After all, his Norwegian wife Therese, his relatives and their two children were there at the performances in Oslo. He had to get 30 tickets. This created a bit of a feel-good atmosphere amidst all the excitement.
He and his players have now traveled from Norway to Sweden. The main round of this European Championship continues there every two days from Friday against Hungary, Croatia, Iceland and Sweden. Is the goal the semifinals? Schmid laughs and says: “We want maximum success in every game. But others want that too. I always tell my boys, as a running joke, that we can win against everyone – except Denmark.”
To claim something like that is unheard of for a small handball nation like Switzerland. During his active time, qualifying for major tournaments was the highest of emotions. Now the public expects participation in the finals, and even more: victories in finals. “I have to curb expectations,” says Schmid, who and his team at home have sparked an atypical enthusiasm for handball in the middle of the winter sports season: “The results cannot be taken for granted.”
Nine Bundesliga players in the squad
Since he led the Swiss as coach two years ago, the mindset has changed. From his twelve years with the Rhein-Neckar Lions, he is used to attacking the highest goals; Schmid was a defining figure for the Lions in the mid-10s as a playmaker and goalscorer and was German champion in 2016 and 2017.
He gradually implanted this attitude into the “Nati”: “The approach of the young players in particular is different. They are sitting on packed suitcases and want to start their careers abroad. They see that it is possible.” There are nine Bundesliga players in his squad; including goalkeeper Nikola Portner from SC Magdeburg, pivot Lukas Laube from THW Kiel and the Lemgo defense specialist Joel Willecke who earn their money at top clubs. Someone like Mehdi Ben Romdhane is on the move to Germany. Ten years ago, Andy Schmid was the only Swiss in the Bundesliga.
“I’m a young coach in cold water”
Schmid is a young trainer, a learner. He says about his style of leadership: “Sometimes I feel like I’m taking my son to school in the morning. I come with me five times, the sixth time he goes alone. With the players I ask myself the question: how long do I let them fly, when do I bring them down again? It’s a fine line.”
Against Slovenia, he trusted them for a long time and let them do their thing – until it was too late. Would an earlier break have helped? The momentum had changed and the Slovenians were overtaking: “In phases like this we are missing the Champions League players who have often experienced something like this. They know where their anchor points are in the game.”
The Swiss as pioneers
He acknowledges his own mistakes: “I’m a young coach in cold water.” Schmid played with some people like Lenny Rubin and Lucas Meister for Switzerland. It’s not always easy to be your “boss”: “We have a flat hierarchy,” says Andy Schmid, “but it has to be clear that everyone is going in the same direction. On the field and off it. I live that.” He calls it performance culture.
Schmid doesn’t just want to be successful with his Swiss. He would like to offer attractive handball: “I want to mix things up. Sometimes seven against six, sometimes with four backcourt players, sometimes six against six.” Other “small” handball nations such as Austria and the Faroe Islands also prove that tactical variants and courage can be successful. Schmid says: “It’s comparable to the Bundesliga. The lower teams copy the big ones and move closer to the top teams. The air at the top is getting thinner and thinner. However, there is a lot of development potential among the smaller clubs or nations.”
Even on the staff, Schmid has precise ideas about how things should be. It was very important to him to get two assistants because the game had become so fast that not one person could keep track of things alone. The Swiss are pioneers here.
His valuable work as a national coach goes unnoticed by anyone. His name comes up when it comes to Alfred Gislason’s successor from March 2027. Schmid doesn’t want to know anything about it, but says: “If the DHB thought of me for just a second, that’s an honor.” He wants to go far further in his career as a handball coach: “I realize that I can do it.”
