For the second edition in a row, Spain were crowned champions at the Mediterranean Handball Confederation’s (MHC) Men’s Championship, after a dramatic final against Serbia.

Eventually, Spain finished the competition with a 34:33 win, after goalkeeper Albert Quesada saved a free throw from Serbia, while Egypt ended on the podium, delivering a clear 24:16 win in the bronze medal match, against hosts Slovakia.

The 22nd edition of the Mediterranean Handball Confederation’s (MHC) Men’s Championship took place in Šamorín, Slovakia, with 14 teams at the start, representing two continents -Europe and Africa – between 12 and 19 April.

Played under the traditional rules of the MHC, the championship allowed Under-18 players, with the aim of promoting development of handball amongst the younger age categories through the Mediterannean Handball Confederation.

The MHC rules of play see every match divided into three periods of 15 minutes each. In each period, the team who scores the largest number of goals receives one point. In case of a draw in a period, each team receives 0.5 points. At the end of the game, the winner is the team which has the most points and is subsequently awarded two points in the ranking of the group. Knock-out games revert to overall goals scored.

The 14 participating were divided into two groups of seven teams each. Following the preliminary round, teams advanced to cross matches and placement games to determine the final standings, as the top two teams in each group will feature in the final.

Spain’s path towards the final went through a decider against Egypt in the last match of the preliminary round, where the European side took a large enough lead after the first two periods, 10:6 and 8:7, to allow Egypt to come back and win the third one, 11:8, but still secure the first place in the group.

In the final standings of Group A, Spain had 27.5 points, with Egypt finishing second (24 points), followed by North Macedonia (18.5), Romania (17), Montenegro (10.5), Greece (7) and Kosovo (0.5).

Serbia dominated Group B, and their path towards the first place was clear since their 26:19 win against Slovakia, as their hardest win came against Bulgaria, 22:20. With another win over Croatia, 28:17 (7:6; 10:3; 11:8), Serbia finished first (26.5 points), with Slovakia (20.5), Croatia (15.5), Türkiye (14.5), Tunisia (12), Italy (11.5) and Bulgaria (4.5) on the following spots.

Therefore, the bronze medal match was going to be a battle between Egypt and Slovakia, but the African side, with plenty of players which were silver medallists at the 2025 IHF Men’s Under-17 World Championship, were the better side, dominating from start to finish.

Egypt won the first two periods, 11:6 and 8:3, opening a 19:9 lead before the last period, which Slovakia took, 7:5, to see Egypt clinch the bronze medal, with a 24:16 win.

The final was the most balanced match of the competition, needing all the time in the world to decide the winner, as Spain needed a comeback to provide entertaining drama. Serbia took the first two periods, 11:10 and 13:11, to open a 24:21 lead.

Despite Mihajlo Popović’s monster game, as the top scorer of the competition scored 12 goals in the match, Spain bounced back, with seven goals each from Jorge Ferreno and Alvaro Diaz, and secured the last period, 13:9, to clinch a 34:33 win.

Albert Quesada saved Mihajlo Popović’s last-gasp free throw in the dying minutes to secure the win for Spain, as both players made it through in the All-Star team, which had two players from Spain, two from Serbia, two from Slovakia and one from Romania. The MVP was Slovakia’s Jakub Valent.

22nd Mediterranean Handball Confederation’s (MHC) Men’s Championship - All-Star team 

Goalkeeper: Albert Quesada (Spain)
Right wing: Ivan Viladiu (Spain)
Right back: Youssef Ahmed (Egypt)
Centre back: Zein Ismail (Egypt)
Left back: Darius Colțoi (Romania)
Left wing: Matúš Majirský (Slovakia)
Line player: Momčilo Simić (Serbia)

Top scorer: Mihajlo Popović (Serbia) – 52 goals
MVP: Jakub Valent (Slovakia)

Final standings 

1. Spain
2. Serbia
3. Egypt
4. Slovakia, 5. North Macedonia, 6. Croatia, 7. Romania, 8. Türkiye, 9. Tunisia, 10. Montenegro, 11. Italy, 12. Greece, 13. Bulgaria, 14. Kosovo

Photo credit: Slovakian Handball Federation