Throughout the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship Preliminary Round which started on Wednesday 13 January and finished on Tuesday 19 January, a total of 46* matches were played with some impressive individual and team performances, statistically-speaking.

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.

So far, hosts Egypt along with European teams Denmark, Hungary and Poland have a perfect record – taking all three awards in their three games to date, with Denmark’s Mathias Gidsel and Poland’s Arkadiusz Moryto winning two apiece. The right backs are joined in this exclusive club by the Swiss centre back, Andy Schmid.

Positionally-speaking, right-backs are the most favoured choice, with 14 of the 46 (30.43%) awards being given to those playing there, while goalkeepers are behind in second place, with nine awards.

And want to know what shirt to wear to be the best? It seems that #23 and #33 are the numbers for you, with four awards each allocated to these shirt wearers.

Hummel Player of the Match awards – Egypt 2021
(up to end of Preliminary Round, 46 games played/48 scheduled)

Per Team
3 – Denmark (DEN), Egypt (EGY), Hungary (HUN), Poland (POL) – 4 teams

2 – Argentina (ARG), Belarus (BLR), Croatia (CRO), France (FRA), Iceland (ISL), Japan (JPN), Norway (NOR), Portugal (POR), Qatar (QAT), Slovenia (SLO), Switzerland (SUI), Sweden (SWE) – 12 teams

1 – Algeria (ALG), Brazil (BRA), DR Congo (COD), Spain (ESP), Republic of Korea (KOR), Morocco (MAR), North Macedonia (MKD), Russian Handball Federation Team (RHF), Tunisia (TUN), Uruguay (URU) – 10 teams

0 – Angola (ANG), Austria (AUT), Bahrain (BRN), Cape Verde (CPV)*, Chile (CHI), Germany (GER) – 6 teams

Per Position

14 – Right Back
9 – Goalkeeper
6 – Centre Back
6 – Left Back
5 – Left Wing
3 – Line Player (Pivot)
3 – Right Wing

Per Player

2 – Andy SCHMID (SUI), Arkadiusz MORYTO (POL), Mathias GIDSEL (DEN)

1 – (40 players)

Per Shirt Number

4 – #23, #33

3 – #2, #7, #12, #15, #87

Per Game

*Initially, 48 matches were scheduled to be played, but following the withdrawal of Cape Verde, their two games vs Germany and vs Uruguay were cancelled with 10:0 wins awarded to their two 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.