Throughout the 48 games of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship Preliminary Round, which started on Wednesday 29 November and finished on Tuesday 5 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. 

All three host nations, along with five other teams have a perfect record – taking all three awards in their three games to date with their continental federation, the European Handball Federation (EHF) winning 31 of the awards on offer. All five confederations represented at DEN/NOR/SWE 2023 have now won at least one award.

Three players have won the award twice, with two centre backs – Romania’s Eliza Buceschi and Islamic Republic of Iran’s Fatemeh Merikh joined by Montenegro’s goalkeeper Marta Batinovic.

Positionally-speaking, centre backs are the most favoured choice, with 13 of the 48 (27%) awards being given to those playing there, while right backs are behind in second place, with 11 awards.

And want to know what shirt to wear to be the best? As usual, the Michael Jordan legacy continues, with #23 worn by four award winners, following by three awards each for those wearing #7, #12 and #42.

hummel Player of the Match awards – Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023
(up to end of Preliminary Round, 48 games played)

Per Team

3 – Brazil (BRA), Denmark (DEN), Iceland (ISL), Japan (JPN), Montenegro (MNE), Netherlands (NED), Norway (NOR), Sweden (SWE) – 8 teams

2 – Angola (ANG), Czechia (CZE), Spain (ESP), Hungary (HUN), Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Romania (ROU), Senegal (SEN) – 7 teams

1 – Austria (AUT), Congo (CGO), Chile (CHI), Cameroon (CMR), Croatia (CRO), Germany (GER), Greenland (GRL), Republic of Korea (KOR), Slovenia (SLO), Ukraine (UKR) – 10 teams

0 – Argentina (ARG), France (FRA), Kazakhstan (KAZ), Paraguay (PAR), People’s Republic of China (CHN), Poland (POL), Serbia (SRB) – 7 teams

Per Confederation

African Handball Confederation (CAHB) – 6 awards
Asian Handball Federation (AHF) – 6 awards
European Handball Federation (EHF) – 31 awards
North America and the Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) – 1 award
South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC) – 4 awards

Per Position

13 – Centre Back
11 – Right Back
9 – Goalkeeper
6 – Left Back
5 – Left Wing
3 – Right Wing
1 – Pivot/Line Player

Per Player

2 – Eliza Buceschi (ROU) – centre back, Fatemeh Merikh (IRI) – centre back, Marta Batinovic (MNE) goalkeeper

1 – 42 players

Per Shirt Number

4 – #23
3 – #7, #12, #42
2 – #4, #8, #10, #21, #22, #32, #35, #43
1 – 19 different numbers

Per Game

Round	Group	Team A	Team B	Player	Country	Position	Shirt #
Preliminary	Group C	Republic of Korea	Austria	Woo Bitna	KOR	CB	22
Preliminary	Group G	Brazil	Ukraine	Bruna Almeida De Paula	BRA	RB	2
Preliminary	Group C	Norway	Greenland	Kristina Sirum Novak	NOR	RB	22
Preliminary	Group G	Spain	Kazakhstan	Maitane Echeverria Martinez	ESP	RW	18
Preliminary	Group B	Montenegro	Cameroon	Marta Batinovic	MNE	GK	43
Preliminary	Group D	Slovenia	Iceland	Perla Ruth Albertsdottir	ISL	LW	8
Preliminary	Group F	Germany	Japan	Natsuki Aizawa	JPN	CB	23
Preliminary	Group H	Netherlands	Argentina	Dione Housheer	NED	RB	48
Preliminary	Group B	Hungary	Paraguay	Nikoletta Papp	HUN	RB	28
Preliminary	Group D	France	Angola	Azenaide Danila Jose Carlos	ANG	RB	35
Preliminary	Group F	Poland	Iran	Fatemeh Merikh	IRI	CB	4
Preliminary	Group H	Czechia	Congo	Marketa Jerabkova	CZE	LB	51
Preliminary	Group A	Croatia	Senegal	Doungou Camara	SEN	RB	7
Preliminary	Group C	Republic of Korea	Greenland	Josefine Jakobsgaard Gadgaard	GRL	RB	10
Preliminary	Group E	Romania	Chile	Eliza Buceschi	ROU	CB	7
Preliminary	Group G	Kazakhstan	Brazil	Adriana Cardoso De Castro	BRA	RW	21
Preliminary	Group A	Sweden	P.R. of China	Sofia Hvenfelt	SWE	PV	35
Preliminary	Group C	Austria	Norway	Henny Reistad	NOR	CB	25
Preliminary	Group E	Denmark	Serbia	Emma Friis	DEN	LW	33
Preliminary	Group G	Spain	Ukraine	Mireya Gonzalez Alvarez	ESP	RB	99
Preliminary	Group D	Slovenia	Angola	Isabel Evelize Wangimba Guialo	ANG	CB	90
Preliminary	Group H	Czechia	Argentina	Veronika Malá	CZE	LW	67
Preliminary	Group B	Paraguay	Montenegro	Tanja Ivanovic	MNE	RB	24
Preliminary	Group D	Iceland	France	Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir	ISL	GK	1
Preliminary	Group F	Iran	Germany	Fatemeh Merikh	IRI	CB	4
Preliminary	Group H	Congo	Netherlands	Bo Van Wetering	NED	LW	12
Preliminary	Group B	Hungary	Cameroon	Katrin Klujber	HUN	RB	42
Preliminary	Group F	Poland	Japan	Haruno Sasaki	JPN	LB	32
Preliminary	Group A	Croatia	P.R. of China	Tea Pijevic	CRO	GK	91
Preliminary	Group G	Ukraine	Kazakhstan	Milana Shukal	UKR	RW	32
Preliminary	Group A	Senegal	Sweden	Jamina Roberts	SWE	LB	8
Preliminary	Group C	Greenland	Austria	Katarina Pandza	AUT	LB	3
Preliminary	Group G	Brazil	Spain	Ana Paula Rodrigues Belo	BRA	CB	9
Preliminary	Group E	Romania	Serbia	Eliza Buceschi	ROU	CB	7
Preliminary	Group C	Norway	Republic of Korea	Camilla Herrem	NOR	LW	23
Preliminary	Group E	Chile	Denmark	Anna Kristensen	DEN	GK	12
Preliminary	Group B	Cameroon	Paraguay	Paola Ebanga	CMR	LB	19
Preliminary	Group D	Angola	Iceland	Sandra Erlingsdottir	ISL	CB	21
Preliminary	Group F	Japan	Iran	Atsuko Baba	JPN	GK	12
Preliminary	Group H	Argentina	Congo	Fanta Diagouraga	CGO	CB	78
Preliminary	Group B	Montenegro	Hungary	Marta Batinovic	MNE	GK	43
Preliminary	Group F	Germany	Poland	Katharina Filter	GER	GK	42
Preliminary	Group H	Netherlands	Czechia	Yara Ten Holte	NED	GK	38
Preliminary	Group D	France	Slovenia	Tjasa Stanko	SLO	LB	10
Preliminary	Group A	P.R. of China	Senegal	Soukeina Sagna	SEN	CB	13
Preliminary	Group E	Serbia	Chile	Madeleine Cortez Fuenzalida	CHI	GK	23
Preliminary	Group A	Sweden	Croatia	Jenny Karlsson	SWE	CB	42
Preliminary	Group E	Denmark	Romania	Kristina Jorgensen	DEN	RB	23

To compare these stats to the same stage at Spain 2021, visit here.

*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.