“It’s the big games that are most fun to play”

Being alone between the goalposts in the final of the IHF Men’s World Championship is not necessarily the most enviable position a player could have. Yet there is plenty a goalkeeper could do in such a crucial match, their saves usually being the final ingredient in a complex mix to create history.

For Niklas Landin, the position is quite well-known, having already played four times in the final act of the world handball flagship competition, with two wins, at Denmark/Germany 2019 and Egypt 2021, and two losses, at Sweden 2011 and Spain 2013.

The IHF Male Player of the Year in 2019 and 2021, Landin has been nothing short of amazing during his career, racking up both individual awards, like being in the All-Star team at Spain 2013 and Denmark/Germany 2019, but also plenty of medals – four at the IHF Men’s World Championship, three at the EHF EURO and two at the Olympic Games.

The 34-year-old shot-stopper has won pretty much everything for club and country, and at his eighth edition of the IHF Men’s World Championship, he is ready to deliver once again in the final after superb performances in the quarter-final against Hungary – 12 saves for a 35% efficiency – and in the semi-final against Spain – 15 saves for a 43% efficiency.

“It’s the big games that are the most fun to play, and when you have tried to be in a final once, you really want to do everything you can to be there again. Every tournament has its own life and story. We are trying to write that story ourselves, and it has been a long and fun journey so far,” says Landin.

Denmark’s goalkeeper ranks seventh in efficiency in the tournament, with a 35% saving percentage in the first eight matches at Poland/Sweden 2023, making 80 saves, the second-highest number of shots stopped after Germany’s Andreas Wolff, who has had 94 saves so far.

Yet individual performances count for nothing if medals and trophies do not back them. Here, Landin has been special, usually rising to the occasion each and every time and delivering excellent performances during crunch moments.

Take, for instance, the 12-save match in the final against Norway at Denmark/Germany 2019, when Landin saved 39% of the shots he faced. Or the 15-save outing against Sweden in the final at Egypt 2021, when he saved 41% of the Scandinavian side’s shots.

However, the Denmark captain praises his defence and the work done by his teammates to force hard shots from the opponents in the toughest matches played by the reigning world champions.

“Our defence is extremely important to me. Without defence, there is no good goalkeeping, but it’s also the other way around. The defence will not shine if the goalkeeper has a bad day. Those two things are connected. This part of the ball has been extremely strong the last three matches for us here, in this competition, and I hope that will continue in the match against France,” adds Landin.

What is sure is that Denmark will need more of the same if they want to write another page of history in the World Championship, becoming the first team to win the trophy three times in a row, something that has yet to be achieved.

“It would be the cherry on top for the whole of handball-Denmark if we succeed in writing history. But the main goal is to see if we can beat France and become world champions. Then history-making is an extra bonus if we are good enough to beat a team that almost never loses a final,” adds Landin.

Indeed, France have won six of the seven finals played in the world handball flagship competition, and it was usually done by an excellent goalkeeping department, with former stalwart Thierry Omeyer being the only player in history to have won five titles at the IHF Men’s World Championship.

Omeyer’s understudy from a few years back, Vincent Gérard, is now leading the way, shaking off some of the bad performances in his career in the crucial matches of major competitions, including in semi-finals, where he had an excellent outing with 12 saves for a 32% efficiency against Sweden on Friday.

“Denmark are a very strong team. We know them very well, they have very, very good players. It is a team that comes with full confidence, with an excellent goalkeeper, and it will be very difficult,” says Gérard.

It will likely get to an interesting battle between the two goalkeepers, “two lions in a cage,” as the French newspaper “L’Equipe” has described the duel between Landin and Gérard, which could be decisive for the final at Poland/Sweden 2023.

But will Landin do anything special to prepare for this match?

“I try to prepare like for any other match. Of course, this final is a very special match; you need to prepare mentally for that. But besides that, I prepare for the final as I did for the first match in the group stage,” concludes Landin.