Six matches. Six wins. 225 goals scored, an average of 37.5 goals per match. An unbeaten streak which has been improved at 35 matches, having not lost a single game at the IHF Men’s World Championship in eight years.

Denmark have been constantly pushing the boundaries over the last few years, winning three world titles on the trot, at Denmark/Germany 2019, Egypt 2021 and Poland/Sweden 2023. The first three-peat in history, one that nobody could ever think it was an achievable proposition.

Then, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games came and Denmark dominated some more, sweeping their opponents, with eight wins in eight matches, to secure the gold medal. But then, on the golden wave, two key players of Denmark’s unprecedented success, left back Mikkel Hansen and goalkeeper Niklas Landin Jacobsen announced their retirements.

That was Denmark’s big question before Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025. Can they succeed without two of the best players in their history? Who is going to replace them? Will the team be the same without Hansen and Landin’s experience and leadership?

The pressure was on Denmark to deliver, especially as they were going to play the preliminary round and the main round of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, the Danish temple of handball, on their home soil.

 

 

 

 

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And the answer was a resounding yes. Time after time, Denmark delivered the same clinical performance, the same juggernaut attacking performances, fueled by the exuberance and confidence of the 2023 IHF Male Player of the Year, Mathias Gidsel.

Gidsel had 99 goals at the IHF Men’s World Championship in only two editions before the start of Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025. In the first six matches, he added 49 more, an average of 8.17 goals per match, on a shooting efficiency of 67%, just a tad down of his previous performances.

Only one of those goals was scored from a penalty. 29 came from breakthroughs, 10 on fast breaks and four via shots from the nine-metre line. And at the end of the match against Czechia, Gidsel, who had 10 goals and two assists, providing once again some highlight reels, received the hummel Player of the Match Award.

At the end of the win against Czechia, 28:22, arguably Denmark’s toughest match so far at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, Gidsel was handed the award by… Hansen and Landin themselves, who attended the sold-out match in Herning, between the 14,773 spectators.

A short bow, “chapeau”, as the French like to say for the two former and Gidsel went directly to the centre of the court, where he was greeted and hugged by Landin and Hansen, as they changed some words.

“It was a huge honour, they are the two biggest names in Danish handball. It was great that they came by and accepted to present the award to me, even though they weren't really into it,” smiled Gidsel, at the end of the match, in an interview for Danish broadcaster TV2.

It was a fitting ending for a true fairytale, in a place where everything started for this Denmark team. In the Boxen in Herning, the Scandinavian side started their fantastic streak six years ago, winning nine of the 10 matches played in the competition – one of them, the opener against Chile, was played in Copenhagen – and they never looked back from that moment.

With a 31:22 win against Norway, where Hansen scored seven goals, Denmark clinched their first world title. Gidsel was not in the squad, being only 20 years old at that time. But his emergence was nothing short of spectacular, as he averages nearly 50 goals per edition at the IHF Men’s World Championship.

And he has at least one match more to play, against either Portugal or Brazil, in the Unity Arena in Baerum, where Denmark will aim to defend their title. They said goodbye to Herning in a sea of claps and cheers, with the Danish fans, over 12,000 for each Denmark match, have provided a fantastic setting and shown why handball is the no.1 sport in the country.

“It has been a huge pleasure, a childhood dream. They have carried us for six games, now it is up to us in the last three games to deliver the final. One just wishes we could stay. Thank you is too small a word for all those who have come,” concluded the 2023 IHF Male Player of the Year in his interview for TV2.