It is not often that debutants enter a championship as favourites, but as current European champions, Hungary’s men are just that.

Last year at the YAC 16 EURO in Bulgaria, the Hungarians lost just one of their nine matches on their way to gold – losing to Spain in the main round. Their eight wins came against Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Czechia, Croatia and Spain, but this time, in the final, which they won 15:14 via shoot-out, Marko Forgacs scoring the winning one.

Forgacs ended with 91 points, finishing behind Dominik Paczulak (103) in their top-scorer list, and is one of a number of key players in the squad for Tunisia who won gold in Bulgaria, alongside goalkeeper Barnabas Beres and defensive specialist Peter Nemeth.

Hungary will face European bronze medallists Germany, alongside championship debutants Tanzania and Kenya in their preliminary group in Tunisia.

“We want to achieve the best possible result, because our men have not yet been to a youth world championships, plus, if we have the opportunity, we would also like to get a quota place for the Youth Olympics Games,” said coach Ferenc Csaszar to mksz.hu.

“From this perspective, it is not bad that we are in the same group as the Germans, because I consider them to be one of the strongest teams, so we can avoid them in the further stages of the tournament. Overall, I am very optimistic because we are talking about a talented age group, and perhaps most importantly, one of our greatest virtues is team unity, but we still have a lot of work to do until then.”

And this team togetherness is a feeling echoed by team manager Bence Priczel.

“We are a family and this is our strength,” he explained to ihf.info. “We will try to give our best every day, because you have to be 100% focused at all time at a world championship.

“We want to reach the top of the world, but it will be very difficult. We worked a lot, we had difficulties, but we would like to go to the Youth Olympic Games, that’s the point. If we can play a smart and humble game, we can reach our dreams.”

For Tamas Neukum, Beach Handball Technical Director and Head of the Beach Handball Subcommittee for the Hungarian Handball Federation, Tunisia 2025 is a crucial championship which deserves the full backing of the federation.

“The Hungarian Handball Federation treats the world championship and the beach handball youth teams as priority events for almost 20 years now,” he explained to ihf.info.

“We strongly support and help the preparation and performance of our young national teams and I am sure that our teams, players and leaders will represent Hungary and the very highly-rated Hungarian handball in a worthy way.

“I hope with all my heart that the young players will achieve their dreams, their goals and that I can see the happiness in their eyes and on their faces. Finally, I wish for them to enjoy every moment of this celebration, this wonderful event.”

Coach: Ferenc Csaszar
Key players: Barnabas Beres (Goalkeeper), Marko Forgacs (specialist), Peter Nemeth (defender)
Qualification information: YAC 16 EURO 2024 – 1st
History in tournament: 2017-2022: DNQ
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group B – Hungary (HUN), Germany (GER), Tanzania (TAN), Kenya (KEN)