No team at China 2024 – either men’s or women’s – have had a longer gap between their first IHF Beach Handball World Championship and second one than the German men.

Exactly 18 years ago the German men made their debut at Brazil 2006 in Rio de Janeiro, finishing eighth on the South American side. Little did they know that the focus in Germany would shift away from the sport and it would be two more decades before they returned to the global sand.

But the Germans come to China 2024 off of the back of a strong European Championship performance last year in Nazare, Portugal where the finished as runners-up behind Hungary. For his performances, Germany’s goalkeeper Moritz Ebert was voted into the All-star Team and has recently been announced as a member of the IHF Beach Handball Showcase which will take place on the sidelines of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Joining him in that showcase squad is teammate Severin Henrich.

In direct contrast to Nazare, a few weeks later, at the European Games in Poland, Germany finished a disappointing seventh, losing preliminary games against Croatia (0-2) and Hungary (1-2) before beating Portugal (2-1) to secure a quarter-final spot against Spain. After taking the Spanish to a shoot-out, they lost the match and had to play for 5-8 place. Again, they faced Croatia and again they lost, resulting in a 7/8 placement match which they won against the host nation Poland 2-1.

Perhaps the better indicator of how Germany will fare at China 2024, at least initially, is their performance at Stage 1 of the 2024 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour in Brazil, which took place in May.

In what would prove to be a forerunner of their preliminary group at China 2024 – all three opponents: Qatar, Uruguay and the USA were present – with the addition of Brazil and Argentina.

And Germany looked strong, winning four of their five round-robin group games, including 2-0 victories against all three China 2024 rivals. They started off with a 21:18, 18:4 victory over Uruguay, followed by a somewhat surprising 17:16, 24:18 victory over Asian champions Qatar.

A shoot-out win (vs Argentina) and loss (vs Brazil) then followed, before another China 2024 opponent victory, against USA 2-0 (24:18, 28:20). This set-up a rematch against Qatar in the semi-final, with Germany winning again, but in a tighter contest, the European side winning 2-1 (16:17, 22:12, SO 7:4).

They faced Brazil in the final and in front of over 1,000 home fans they could not stop Nailson Amaral and Renan Carvalho who combined for 25 points to see their challengers off 2-0 (19:16, 16:10).

For handball fans following the all-conquering German women’s team, it will be interesting to see how the men’s side fare in China after such a long break and with all players making their debut at this level.

“This is our first World Championship in 18 years and we are therefore the newcomers in a whole series of established top teams all around the world,” said Germany coach Marten Franke to dhb.de.

“Nevertheless, we want to build on the last two years and show the development that this still very young and hungry team has undergone.”

 

Coach: Marten Franke

Key Players: Severin Henrich, Moritz Ebert

Qualification information: 2023 EHF European Beach Handball Championships – 2nd

History in Tournament: 2004: DNQ, 2006: 8th, 2008-2022: DNQ

Group at China 2024: Group D: Germany, Qatar, Uruguay, United States of America