Denmark/Norway/Sweden: The Best – Main Round and President’s Cup

11 Dec. 2023

Denmark/Norway/Sweden: The Best – Main Round and President’s Cup

Throughout the 48 games of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship Main Round and first phase of the President’s Cup which started on Wednesday 6 December and finished on Monday 11 December there have been some impressive individual performances.

Every single match - like all at Denmark/Norway/Sweden - saw fans have the opportunity to help decide the ‘hummel Player of the Match’ award, via the IHF Official App with the IHF Analyst on site nominating a shortlist of three influential players with five minutes remaining and getting fans to vote.

To read more about the award and hummel's commitment to fostering empowerment and inclusion through sports by donating handball equipment to the FANT organisation, click here.

To view the data from the Preliminary Round, click here.


Two of the three co-host nations, along with four other teams had a perfect record – taking all three awards in their three games with the European Handball Federation (EHF) winning 28 of the 48 awards on offer. All five confederations represented at DEN/NOR/SWE 2023 have now won at least one award.

One player won all three of the awards in the second phase of competition – Chile’s goalkeeper Madeleine Noelia Cortez Fuenzalida.

Positionally-speaking, centre backs and left backs are the most favoured choice, with exactly 12, or one quarter (25%) of the awards being given to those playing there.

And want to know what shirt to wear to be the best? Unlucky for some, but lucky for others, shirt #13 is the most popular in this phase, with five awards.

hummel Player of the Match awards – Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023
(Main Round and President’s Cup – first phase, 48 games played)

Per Team

3 – Chile (CHI), Czechia (CZE), Greenland (GRL), Netherlands (NED), Norway (NOR), Sweden (SWE)

2 – Angola (ANG), Congo (CGO), Denmark (DEN), Germany (GER), Japan (JPN), Montenegro (MNE), Paraguay (PAR), Romania (ROU), Senegal (SEN), Slovenia (SLO)

1 – Argentina (ARG), Austria (AUT), Brazil (BRA), Cameroon (CMR), Spain (ESP), France (FRA), Hungary (HUN), Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Iceland (ISL), Poland (POL)

Per Confederation

African Handball Confederation (CAHB) – 7 awards

Asian Handball Federation (AHF) – 3

European Handball Federation (EHF) – 28

North America and the Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) – 3 

South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC) – 7

Per Position

12 – Centre Back, Left Back

11 – Goalkeeper 

6 – Left Back

5 – Left Wing

3 – Pivot/Line Player

3 – Right Back

2 – Right Wing

Per Player

3 – Madeleine Noelia Cortez Fuenzalida (CHI) – goalkeeper

2 – Eliza Buceschi (ROU) – centre back, Ivalu Cecilie Bjerge (GRL) – left back, Marketa Jerabkova (CZE) – left back, Soukeina Sagna (SEN) – centre back

1 – 37 players

Per Shirt Number

5 – #13 

4 – #1, #8, #23

3 – #7, #10

2 – #14, #20, #22, #38, #51

Per Game

President's Cup Group II Fanta Diagouraga CGO CB 78 Kazakhstan Congo
Main Round Group II Alja Varagic SLO RW 20 Republic of Korea Slovenia
Main Round Group IV Marketa Jerabkova CZE LB 51 Ukraine Czechia
Main Round Group II Ines Ivancok AUT LB 29 France Austria
Main Round Group IV Silvia Arderius Martin ESP CB 8 Spain Argentina
Main Round Group II Camilla Herrem NOR LW 23 Norway Angola
Main Round Group IV Yara Ten Holte NED GK 38 Netherlands Brazil
President's Cup Group II Madeleine Noelia Cortez Fuenzalida CHI GK 23 Chile Iran
Main Round Group I Matea Pletikosic MNE CB 10 Montenegro Croatia
Main Round Group III Karolina Kochaniak-Sala POL CB 49 Serbia Poland
President's Cup Group I Maria Fernandez Estigarribia PAR LB 14 P.R. of China Paraguay
Main Round Group I Soukeina Sagna SEN CB 13 Senegal Hungary
Main Round Group III Katharina Filter GER GK 42 Germany Romania
President's Cup Group I Ivaana Augusta Ottosen Holm GRL PV 26 Greenland Iceland
Main Round Group I Tyra Axner SWE LB 54 Sweden Cameroon
Main Round Group III Sakura Kametani JPN GK 1 Denmark Japan
Main Round Group II Azenaide Carlos ANG RB 35 Austria Angola
Main Round Group IV Gabriela Gonçalves Dias Moreschi BRA GK 1 Brazil Argentina
Main Round Group II Chloe Valentini FRA LW 6 Republic of Korea France
Main Round Group IV Petra Kudláčková CZE GK 33 Czechia Spain
Main Round Group II Stine Oftedal NOR CB 10 Slovenia Norway
Main Round Group IV Lois Abbingh NED LB 8 Ukraine Netherlands
President's Cup Group II Madeleine Noelia Cortez Fuenzalida CHI GK 23 Chile Kazakhstan
Main Round Group I Ivona Pavicevic MNE LW 91 Senegal Montenegro
Main Round Group III Eliza Buceschi ROU CB 7 Romania Japan
President's Cup Group II Rita Luana Saraiva CGO PV 61 Iran Congo
Main Round Group I Laeticia Ateba CMR LB 7 Croatia Cameroon
Main Round Group III Emily Bölk GER LB 20 Serbia Germany
President's Cup Group I Fernanda Insfran Mora PAR RB 4 Paraguay Iceland
Main Round Group I Johanna Bundsen SWE GK 1 Hungary Sweden
Main Round Group III Trine Østergaard Jensen DEN RW 25 Poland Denmark
President's Cup Group I Ivalu Cecilie Bjerge GRL LB 13 P.R. of China Greenland
Main Round Group IV Marisol Carratu ARG GK 1 Argentina Ukraine
Main Round Group IV Marketa Jerabkova CZE LB 51 Czechia Brazil
Main Round Group II Albertina Kassoma ANG PV 10 Angola Republic of Korea
Main Round Group IV Zoë Sprengers NED LW 22 Netherlands Spain
Main Round Group II Tamara Mavsar SLO LW 14 Slovenia Austria
Main Round Group II Katrine Lunde NOR GK 16 France Norway
President's Cup Group II Madeleine Noelia Cortez Fuenzalida CHI GK 23 Congo Chile
Main Round Group I Soukeina Sagna SEN CB 13 Cameroon Senegal
Main Round Group III Kaho Nakayama JPN RB 13 Japan Serbia
President's Cup Group II Fatemeh Merikh IRI CB 4 Iran Kazakhstan
Main Round Group I Petra Vamos HUN CB 38 Hungary Croatia
Main Round Group III Eliza Buceschi ROU CB 7 Poland Romania
President's Cup Group I ElĂ­n RĂłsa MagnĂșsdĂłttir ISL CB 22 Iceland P.R. of China
Main Round Group I Jamina Roberts SWE LB 8 Montenegro Sweden
Main Round Group III Anne Mette Hansen DEN LB 8 Germany Denmark
President's Cup Group I Ivalu Cecilie Bjerge GRL LB 13 Paraguay Greenland

*All information uses data supplied by national federations at their pre-championship technical meetings. In-depth statistics can be found on the IHF Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023 mini-site here.