Handball | Bundesliga with a kickstart: two top games and new favorites

Julian Köster (r.) is back on top with THW Kiel this season. Photo: imago/Marcel von Fehrn Andreas Wolff, Julian Köster, Lukas Zerbe, Lasse Ludwig, Matthes Langhoff and Tim Freihöfer were teammates again for a few days. The six handball players from THW Kiel and Füchse Berlin were part of national coach Alfred Gislason's national team, which made a successful start to the European Championship qualification with a win against Belgium last week - and is also pursuing a much more important joint project for handball: the World Cup in Germany next January. However, the national players still have numerous obligations with their clubs before the two-and-a-half week home game on the biggest international stage.

After the international break, the Bundesliga is kicking off this weekend with two important encounters that could even have a decisive character in the fight for the championship title: At the start on Saturday, the Füchse Berlin with their national players Ludwig, Langhoff and Freihöfer will welcome the Kiel trio Wolff, Köster and Zerbe. Less than 24 hours later, the next summit will take place on Sunday in Magdeburg, when the reigning champions and current second-placed SCM welcome the third team from Flensburg.

However, the signs have changed this season in such a way that, based on previous impressions, the people of Kiel can once again have a serious say in the fight for the national title. As a reminder: Last season, the record champions had their worst season in ages and ended up in sixth place in the final rankings. This means that THW is not represented in any international competition for the first time in more than 30 years.

»The boys want to play twice a week, not just once. I notice that in every training session.«

This devastating result cost coach Filip Jicha his job and led the THW club management to decide to transfer sporting responsibility to the new coach Børge Lund. “Our main goal is to develop a strong team and be able to compete internationally again next year,” said the Norwegian before the start of the season and added: “The boys want to play twice a week, not just once. I notice that in every training session, and of course I feel the same way.«

After eleven match days, the Kiel team is on track. Since Lund took up his position on the Baltic Sea in the summer, the balance sheet has again read appropriately for the successful club from Schleswig-Holstein. The THW has only had to admit defeat once so far: at the end of September they lost in Magdeburg, i.e. in one of the hardest halls in the Bundesliga to play in. However, apart from the SCM game, Kiel has not yet had to overcome any of the very high away hurdles this season. The people of Kiel have not yet been guests in Flensburg, Gummersbach, Melsungen or Berlin. The latter will change on Saturday.

The situation looks a little different with foxes. While Kiel signed two world-class players in the summer with Köster and Domen Makuc and thus made themselves competitive again, most experts predicted a year of transition for the Berliners - because they gave up two fundamental building blocks of their great team of recent years in goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev and backcourt shooter Lasse Andersson and did not adequately replace them.

The consequences for the Foxes are basically visible every few days: Coach Nicolej Krickau's team continues to play highly attractive, fast and sometimes exciting handball. In terms of breadth, the Berlin squad lacks the quality of previous years, in which the club became German champions for the first time in 2025 and reached the final of the Champions League twice in a row. With six minus points, they are currently only in fifth place in the Bundesliga. If exceptional talent Mathias Gidsel & Co. don't want to completely lose sight of the top of the table in the future, a home win in the Max-Schmeling-Halle against THW is practically mandatory.

On the other hand, no one in the capital has to worry about the future of the local handball Bundesliga team. Next summer, two of the best backcourt players in the world, the Frenchman Dika Mem and the Dane Simon Pytlick, will be moving to Berlin. Füchse manager Bob Hanning has also announced further spectacular signings.

They have also taken precautions at THW Kiel - and have already signed Justus Fischer from TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, one of the currently greatest circle runner talents, for next season. So it's not a bold prediction that Berlin and Kiel's handball players will fight for national and international titles more often in the near future - regardless of the outcome of the game this Saturday.

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