Throughout the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship which started on Wednesday 13 January a total of 98* matches were played with some impressive individual and team performances.

Every single match - like all at Egypt 2021 - 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.

Despite losing their quarter-final, Egypt have a unique 100% record of winning the award in all of their matches - seven in total. While no other team can claim this record, semi-finallists Denmark and Sweden, with six awards each, can still beat it if they take the award in their final two games. Spain, on five awards, can equal it if they win their remaining couple of games too.

The fourth semi-finalists, France, have won the award just twice while Bahrain and Cape Verde are the only two teams out of the 32 at Egypt 2021 who failed to take home an award.

Switzerland's Andy Schmid sits at the top of table with Denmark's Mathias Gidsel on three awards each, with the Danish right back able to be clear on top if he can pick up the award in either of his two remaining games. Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, with two, can also finish at the top alongside his teammate Hampus Wanne and Denmark's Emil Jakobsen.

Positionally-speaking, in the preliminary round, right-backs were the most favoured choice, while in the main round it was goalkeepers who were most popular. Overall, it is a close race between the positions with 21 (21.42%) for right backs and 20 (20.4%) for goalkeepers, while left backs (17) (17.34%) still have a chance of drawing level at the top.

And want to know what shirt to wear to be the best? It seems the number seven (#7) is really lucky - with seven awards so far.

Hummel Player of the Match awards – Egypt 2021
(up to end of quarter-finals, 98 games played/104 scheduled)

Per Team

7 – Egypt (EGY) - 1 team

6 – Denmark (DEN), Hungary (HUN), Sweden (SWE) - 3 teams

5 – Spain (ESP), Poland (POL), Switzerland (SUI) - 3 teams

4 – Croatia (CRO), Norway (NOR), Portugal (POR), Qatar (QAT) - 4 teams

3 – Argentina (ARG), DR Congo (COD), Iceland (ISL), Japan (JPN), Republic of Korea (KOR), Slovenia (SLO), Tunisia (TUN) - 7 teams

2 – Algeria (ALG), Austria (AUT), Belarus (BLR), Brazil (BRA), Chile (CHI), France (FRA), Morocco (MAR), North Macedonia (MKD), Russian Handball Federation Team (RHF) - 9 teams

1 – Angola (ANG), Germany (GER), Uruguay (URU) - 3 teams

0 – Bahrain (BRN), Cape Verde (CPV) - 2 teams

Per Position

21 – Right Back

20 – Goalkeeper

17 – Left Back

13 – Left Wing

12 – Centre Back

9 – Line Player (Pivot)

6 – Right Wing

Per Player

3 – Andy SCHMID (SUI), Mathias GIDSEL (DEN)

2 – Adam MORAWSKI (POL), Andreas PALICKA (SWE), Arkadiusz MORYTO (POL), Bence BANHIDI (HUN), Bjarki MAR ELISSON (ISL), Emil JAKOBSEN (DEN), Federico PIZARRO (ARG), Frankis MARZO (QAT), Gauthier MVUMBI (COD), Hampus WANNE (SWE), Kiril LAZAROV (MKD), Messaoud BERKOUS (ALG), Mohamed AMINE DARMOUL (TUN), Nikola PORTNER (SUI), Sander SAGOSEN (NOR), Sebastian FRIMMEL (AUT)

1 - (62 players)

Per Shirt Number

7 – #7

6 – #12, #15

5 – #16, #23, #33

4 – #3, #27

3 – #2, #4, #5, #6, #9, #10, #11, #20, #87

2 – #1, #8, #24, #55, #66, #71, #90, #94

1 – #13, #19, #22, #26, #29, #31, #37, #39, #42, #44, #79, #83, #91

Per Match

*Initially, 108 matches were scheduled to be played, but following the withdrawal of Cape Verde, their six games vs Germany, vs Uruguay, vs Tunisia, vs Angola, vs DR Congo and vs Republic of Korea were cancelled with 10:0 wins awarded to their opponents. No best player awards were given for these.

All information use data supplied by national federations at their pre-championship technical meetings. In-depth statistics can be found on the IHF Egypt 2021 mini-site HERE.

Photo: Egypt 2021