With 16 matches left, the action is heating up on court at the 28th IHF Men's World Championship as the world's best players look to claim the World Championship title.

96 matches of the 112 scheduled at Poland/Sweden 2023 have been played, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals, placement matches, bronze-medal match and final remaining.

Every single match has seen a 'hummel Best Player of the Match' awarded thanks to International Handball Federation partner hummel.

After each match, the 'hummel Player of The Match' will get the opportunity to pass on his talent and passion for handball to the next generation by donating handball equipment to the organisation FANT (Football for A New Tomorrow), which was founded in 2012 by the Athens 2004 women's handball Olympic gold medallist with Denmark, Josephine Touray.

And it is no surprise that the eight quarter-final teams dominate the awards. Egypt, France, Germany, Norway and Spain all have five awards each in their six matches played, while Denmark and Sweden have taken the award in every single one of their matches at Poland/Sweden 2023. 

The eighth team, Hungary, have recorded two so far, while the Republic of Korea have an impressive five awards from their six matches so far and could make it six awards as they face North Macedonia for 27/28 place on Wednesday (25 January).

Only Algeria have failed to win an award so far out of the 32 teams playing. They have one last chance on Wednesday when they take on Uruguay in the 31/32 placement match.

In terms of continental federations, all five represented at Poland/Sweden 2023 have won awards, with Europe, on 63, taking just short of two-thirds of all awards on offer, despite having over half of the teams competing (17 out of 32).

With Denmark and Spain holding 11 best player awards between them so far, it is no surprise that two of their key players head up the nominations – but at very different ends of the court.

Denmark's right back Mathias Gidsel has won half of his team's awards so far and is joined by Spain's goalkeeper Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas at the top of the awarding with three each.

It is fitting that Pérez de Vargas' position is not only the most awarded one (35 awards), 17 more than the next position – centre back (18) – but also that his shirt number (#1) is the most popular with 10 awards, three more than #12, another classic goalkeeper number.

To see the awards from Egypt 2021 click here, for Germany/Denmark 2019 click here. 

hummel Best Players of the Match – Poland/Sweden 2023

(up to 23 January 2023)

Per team:

6: Denmark (DEN), Sweden (SWE)

5: Egypt (EGY), France (FRA), Germany (GER), Republic of Korea (KOR), Netherlands (NED), Norway (NOR), Spain (ESP)

4: Iceland (ISL), Poland (POL), Slovenia (SLO), United States of America (USA)

3: Brazil (BRA), Cape Verde (CPV), Croatia (CRO), Serbia (SRB)

2: Argentina (ARG), Bahrain (BRN), Montenegro (MNE), Morocco (MAR), North Macedonia (MKD), Portugal (POR), Tunisia TUN)

1: Belgium (BEL), Chile (CHI), Hungary (HUN), Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Qatar (QAT), Saudi Arabia (KSA), Uruguay (URU)

0: Algeria (ALG)

Per continental federation:

Europe (EHF – 17 teams at Poland/Sweden 2023): 63

Africa (CAHB – 5): 12

Asia (AHF – 5): 10

South and Central America (SCAHC – 4): 7

North America and The Caribbean (NACHC – 1): 4

Per player:

3: Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (ESP), Mathias Gidsel (DEN)

2: Torbjorn Bergerud (NOR), Szymon Sicko (POL), Simon Pytlick (DEN), Sander Sagosen (NOR), Pal Merkovszky (USA), Nedim Remili (FRA), Luc Steins (NED), Milos Vujovic (MNE), Kay Smits (NED), Leonardo Tercariol (BRA), Andreas Palicka (SWE), Bjarki Mar Elisson (ISL), Daniel Fernandez Jimenez (ESP), Blaz Janc (SLO)

1: 62 players

Per position:

Goalkeeper (GK): 35

Centre Back (CB): 18

Left Back (LB): 15

Right Back (RB): 10

Left Wing (LW): 9

Line Player (LP): 4

Right Wing (RW): 5

Per shirt number:

10: #1

7: #12

5: #8

4: #5, #9, #16, #30

3: #6, #10, #19, #35

2: #3, #4, #7, #11, #15, #20, #25, #31, #39, #43, #44, #62, #66, #70, #71, #90

1: #18, #21, #23, #33, #36, #45, #51, #77, #80, #88, #92, #94, #95, #98

Per match:

Date	Match	Player	Country	Position	Jersey #
Preliminary Round
11/01	FRA-POL	Nedim Remili	France	Centre back	5
12/01	CHI-IRI	Mohammad Siavoshishahenayati	Iran	Goalkeeper	16
12/01	ESP-MNE	Gonzalo Perez de Vargas	Spain	Goalkeeper	1
12/01	KSA-SLO	Blaz Janc	Slovenia	Right wing	8
12/01	CPV-URU	Bruno Landim	Cape Verde	Right back	10
12/01	SWE-BRA	Andreas Palicka	Sweden	Goalkeeper	12
12/01	HUN-KOR	Donguk Kim	Korea	Goalkeeper	66
12/01	ISL-POR	Bjarki Mar Elisson	Iceland	Left wing	8
13/01	ARG-NED	Bart Ravensbergen	Netherlands	Goalkeeper	1
13/01	NOR-MKD	Sander Sagosen	Norway	Left back	5
13/01	GER-QAT	Juri Knorr	Germany	Centre back	15
13/01	SRB-ALG	Petar Djordjic	Serbia	Left back	44
13/01	BRN-TUN	Ahmed Fadhul	Bahrain	Right wing	18
13/01	DEN-BEL	Mathias Gidsel	Denmark	Right back	19
13/01	MAR-USA	Pal Merkovszky	USA	Goalkeeper	1
13/01	EGY-CRO	Ali Mohamed	Egypt	Left back	90
14/01	MNE-IRI	Milos Vujovic	Montenegro	Left wing	6
14/01	ESP-CHI	Daniel Fernandez Jimenez	Spain	Left wing	70
14/01	FRA-KSA	Nicolas Tournat	France	Line player	11
14/01	POL-SLO	Blaz Janc	Slovenia	Right wing	8
14/01	BRA-URU	Leonardo Tercariol	Brazil	Goalkeeper	62
14/01	SWE-CPV	Mikael Appelgren	Sweden	Goalkeeper	20
14/01	POR-KOR	Hyeonsik Lee	Korea	Left back	71
14/01	ISL-HUN	Bjarki Mar Elisson	Iceland	Left wing	8
15/01	MKD-NED	Kay Smits	Netherlands	Right back	31
15/01	NOR-ARG	Sander Sagosen	Norway	Left back	5
15/01	GER-SRB	Johannes Golla	Germany	Line player	4
15/01	QAT-ALG	Rafael Capote	Qatar	Left back	9
15/01	BEL-TUN	Raphaël Kotters	Belgium	Right back	10
15/01	DEN-BRN	Mathias Gidsel	Denmark	Right back	19
15/01	EGY-MAR	Abdelraham Homayed	Egypt	Goalkeeper	1
15/01	CRO-USA	Gary Hines	USA	Left back	9
16/01	MNE-CHI	Milos Vujovic	Montenegro	Left wing	6
16/01	IRI-ESP	Gonzalo Perez de Vargas	Spain	Goalkeeper	1
16/01	SLO-FRA	Nedim Remili	France	Centre back	5
16/01	POL-KSA	Szymon Sicko	Poland	Left back	9
16/01	BRA-CPV	Gualther Furtado	Cape Verde	Centre back	44
16/01	URU-SWE	Tobias Thulin	Sweden	Goalkeeper	30
16/01	KOR-ISL	Viktor Gísli Hallgrímsson	Iceland	Goalkeeper	16
16/01	POR-HUN	Miguel Ferreira	Portugal	Goalkeeper	35
17/01	MKD-ARG	Diego Simonet	Argentina	Centre back	6
17/01	NED-NOR	Luc Steins	Netherlands	Centre back	12
17/01	ALG-GER	Jannik Kohlbacher	Germany	Line player	80
17/01	QAT-SRB	Dejan Milosavljev	Serbia	Goalkeeper	98
17/01	BEL-BRN	Mohamed Ali	Bahrain	Goalkeeper	21
17/01	TUN-DEN	Mathias Gidsel	Denmark	Right back	19
17/01	USA-EGY	Mohamed Aly	Egypt	Goalkeeper	92
17/01	CRO-MAR	Luka Cindrić	Croatia	Centre back	33
Main Round
18/01	IRI-SLO	Domen Makuc	Slovenia	Centre back	35
18/01	FRA-MNE	Vincent Gerard	France	Goalkeeper	12
18/01	ESP-POL	Szymon Sicko	Poland	Left back	9
18/01	POR-BRA	Leonardo Tercariol	Brazil	Goalkeeper	62
18/01	CPV-ISL	Delcio Pina	Cape Verde	Left back	3
18/01	SWE-HUN	Hampus Wanne	Sweden	Left wing	15
19/01	QAT-NED	Kay Smits	Netherlands	Right back	31
19/01	GER-ARG	Lukas Merstens	Germany	Left wing	36
19/01	NOR-SRB	Goran Johannessen	Norway	Left back	23
19/01	USA-BRN	Alexandre Chan Blanco	USA	Centre back	7
19/01	EGY-BEL	Seif Elderaa	Egypt	Centre back	45
19/01	DEN-CRO	Simon Pytlick	Denmark	Centre back	43
20/01	SLO-ESP	Gonzalo Perez de Vargas	Spain	Goalkeeper	1
20/01	CPV-POR	António Areia	Portugal	Right wing	25
20/01	IRI-FRA	Thibaud Briet	France	Left back	39
20/01	BRA-HUN	Gustavo Rodriguez	Brazil	Right back	95
20/01	MNE-POL	Mateusz Kornecki	Poland	Goalkeeper	1
20/01	ISL-SWE	Andreas Palicka	Sweden	Goalkeeper	12
21/01	SRB-ARG	Marko Milosavljevic	Serbia	Left back	39
21/01	BRN-EGY	Karim Hendawy	Egypt	Goalkeeper	88
21/01	QAT-NOR	Torbjorn Bergerud	Norway	Goalkeeper	30
21/01	BEL-CRO	Mate Sunjic	Croatia	Goalkeeper	35
21/01	NED-GER	Andreas Wolff	Germany	Goalkeeper	30
21/01	USA-DEN	Lukas Jorgensen	Denmark	Line player	25
22/01	CPV-HUN	Egon Hanusz	Hungary	Centre back	77
22/01	MNE-SLO	Urban Lesjak	Slovenia	Goalkeeper	90
22/01	IRI-POL	Ariel Pietrasik	Poland	Left back	12
22/01	BRA-ISL	Gísli Thorgeir Kristjánsson	Iceland	Centre back	10
22/01	SWE-POR	Daniel Pettersson	Sweden	Right wing	11
22/01	ESP-FRA	Daniel Fernandez Jimenez	Spain	Left wing	70
23/01	QAT-ARG	Ignacio Pizarro	Argentina	Right back	3
23/01	USA-BEL	Pal Merkovszky	USA	Goalkeeper	1
23/01	SRB-NED	Luc Steins	Netherlands	Centre back	12
23/01	CRO-BRN	Ivan Martinovic	Croatia	Right back	51
23/01	GER-NOR	Torbjørn Bergerud	Norway	Goalkeeper	30
23/01	DEN-EGY	Simon Pytlick	Denmark	Centre back	43
President`s Cup
18/01	CHI-KSA	Mohammad Al-Salem	Saudi Arabia	Goalkeeper	16
18/01	URU-KOR	Changwoo Lee	Korea	Goalkeeper	94
19/01	ALG-MKD	Nikola Mitrevski	North Macedonia	Goalkeeper	1
19/01	MAR-TUN	Mohamed Amine Bentaleb	Morocco	Centre back	8
20/01	CHI-URU	Erwin Feuchtmann	Chile	Left back	4
20/01	KSA-KOR	Kim Donguk	Korea	Goalkeeper	66
21/01	ALG-MAR	Jamal Ouaali	Morocco	Goalkeeper	16
21/01	MKD-TUN	Mohamed Darmoul	Tunisia	Centre back	71
22/01	KOR-CHI	Jeongu Kang	Korea	Centre back	7
22/01	KAS-URU	Federico Rubbo	Uruguay	Left wing	20
23/01	TUN-ALG	Asil Namli	Tunisia	Goalkeeper	1
23/01	MKD-MAR	Martin Tomovski	North Macedonia	Goalkeeper	12