Across large swathes of the world handball is huge. It’s the equivalent of football but played with the hands. Although ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ may not necessarily apply to the sport, it’s got a fanatical fan following and premier league structure that’s remarkably similar to the ‘beautiful game’.
Ancient Roman Origins & the Spread to Diverse Geographies
According to archaeologists and historians, there’s evidence that handball was played in ancient Rome. It was popular amongst Eskimos and Intuits and the Mongols and Tartars of Mongolia and Siberia apparently enjoyed a good game. Although its recent history is more Germanic than oriental, handball is enthusiastically played in diverse geographies.
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Right now, the so-called ‘Sharp Shooters’ in the national handball team of Zambia are hard at work sharpening their skills in the hope they’ll get a fair run at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. There are handball teams in Brazil, Bahrain, the Cameroon and China and far, far beyond. At last count the International Handball Federation (IHF) had more than 200 paid up members.
An Olympic Sport Dominated by European Leagues
Although handball may be a bit of non-starter in places like Australia, South Africa and the UK, it’s a fully-fledged Olympic sport that’s contested by both men and women. There’s an IHF World Handball Championship for the separate genders and players like Mikkel Hansen, Christina Neagu, Eline Fagerheim and Magnus Wislander are revered superstars of the sport.
In Scandinavia, Russia and most of Europe handball is second only to football in terms of popularity. There are literally thousands pf players belonging to hundreds of clubs that play each other in leagues similar to La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga.
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In fact, the premier handball league in Germany is the Bundesliga, a league consisting of 18 teams and founded in 1966, just three years after its counterpart in football.
Despite its global reach handball is still very much dominated by European teams. Over its 62-year history not one world champion in the men’s tournament has hailed from outside Europe and only South Korea has flown the ‘outsiders’ flag in the women’s event.
The kings of the international handball court are the French who have bagged a record six World Championship titles. On the women’s side it’s the Russians who have prevailed on four separate occasions.
Top Handballs Players
Mikkel Hansen
As with all great sports there’s an International Handball Hall of Fame honouring the top players, together with a long list of individual awards that are doled out to the best of the best each year. Players like the Romanian right back for Steava Bucharest, Gheorghe Grvia have earned the right to be called the Best Handball Player of All-Time.
In the modern era guys like IHF World Player of the Year, Denmark’s Mikkel Hansen bank around €1.5 million annually in appearance fees. Uwe Gensheimer, Domagoj Duvnjak and Nikola Karabatic are all star studded handball heroes and household names similar to the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Mohammed Salah!
Cristina Neagu
In the ladies’ game two-time Olympic gold medallist, Ukrainian Zinaida Turchyna of HC Spartak Kyiv was named the Player of the 20
th Century. In more recent times the left back for CSM Bucuresti, Christina Neagu became one of the most successful and highly paid professional handball players in the women’s league.
Although handball is not as yet a global sporting phenomenon, it has all the elements of a great sporting code. With its rapid expansion into Africa, the Middle East and South America the future of handball is onwards and upwards!
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