Get ready for a new edition of handball’s most anticipated distinctions: the IHF World Player of the Year awards are back for 2025, with four categories once again celebrating the game’s biggest stars and brightest talents. The winners will be decided by the combined votes of fans, national team coaches and the IHF Commission of Coaching and Methods (CCM).​

After a refreshed format was introduced in 2023, the traditional IHF Male World Player of the Year and IHF Female World Player of the Year awards returned, joined by two new honours highlighting rising stars: the IHF Young Female Player of the Year and the IHF Young Male Player of the Year. That year, Mathias Gidsel and Henny Reistad were crowned World Players of the Year, while Lena Grandveau and Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu claimed the young player awards.

Gidsel and Reistad doubled down last year and were selected once again as the best players of the year, with Hungary's Petra Simon and Germany's Renars Uscins winning the Young Female and Young Male Player of the Year respectively.

The voting system for 2025 remains unchanged. Fan votes will account for one third of the final result in each category, another third will come from the coaches who led their national teams at the 2025 IHF Men's and Women's World Championships, and the remaining third from the CCM. The player with the highest overall percentage across these three groups will win the award.​

For all categories, three players have been shortlisted by the IHF Commission of Coaching and Methods (CCM), based on their performances in 2025, having impressed throughout the last year in major competitions. The nominated players will be presented on a category-by-category basis on Thursday, 22 January 2026.

The voting will be open for the fans from Sunday, 25 January 2026, from 12:00 CET, to Tuesday, 10 February 2026 at 23:59 CET, therefore more than two weeks for the fans to vote for their favourites and help them win the prestigious award. 

All the votes will be casted on the IHF official website, with voting cards readily available in the awards section of the website after all the nominees for all the categories have been presented. After Tuesday, 10 February 2026, at 23:59 CET, no votes will be available to be cast.

Voters are kindly reminded that only performances during the 2025 calendar year should be considered; early 2026 competitions, including continental events, are not part of the evaluation period for these awards.​