Eight years ago, Qatar achieved their best result in handball, winning the silver medal at the IHF Men’s World Championship on home soil. And while the Asian team have so far failed to emulate that achievement, they are still to be reckoned with.

Between 2011 and 2017, Norway missed the qualification for the IHF Men’s World Championship two times – in 2013 and 2015 – but on the fringes of the team, something excellent was born.

At the subsequent two editions, in 2017 and 2019, Norway made it to the final but lost against France and Denmark, respectively, two more experienced teams that used that to their advantage and sealed gold.

Since their debut at the IHF Men’s World Championship in 1997, Portugal have improved their final standings in each tournament, including a tenth place at Egypt 2021 where this golden generation of players really made an impression.

That finish also enabled the team to progress to the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, where they eliminated Croatia and Tunisia and clinched their first participation in the Olympic Games, finishing ninth at Tokyo 2020.

For the first time, the IHF Men’s World Championship will be hosted by Poland, a team that has been through highs and lows over the last two decades in the competition. They delivered some of the best handball on display but fell on the pecking order after a slew of retirements from the players of the golden generation.

In 2007, Poland lost only one match before the final, where they conceded a 24:29 loss against hosts Germany. Two years later, Poland again made it to the semi-finals, securing the bronze medal.

Handball has been making huge gains in the Netherlands, but the process was long and arduous, both for the men's and the women's national teams. The latter won the first IHF World Championship title in 2019, with a golden generation, but the men's team has also been developing well and producing outstanding talents in recent years.

Morocco are no newcomers at the World Championship. The Atlas Lions have already participated in seven editions of the competition, all under head coach Noureddine Bouhadiou, who will now prepare the North African team for their eighth campaign at this level.

In 2015, the Islamic Republic of Iran debuted at the IHF Men’s World Championship. In Qatar, they finished 21st after winning two of their seven matches – both in the President’s Cup against Chile and Saudi Arabia.

After missing the following three editions of the tournament, "Team Melli" are returning to the world stage after an eight-year break. In January, they booked a ticket to Poland/Sweden 2023 after finishing fourth at the 2022 AHF Asian Men’s Championship in Saudi Arabia.

Hungary switched their focus to developing young players in both the men’s and women’s national teams, which proved to be a great idea as they have had their share of success in the younger age competitions, especially in the women’s category.

A simple look at the final ranking of the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship for Iceland shows their worst ranking – a 20th place finish out of the 32 teams in Egypt.

However, as Iceland head coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson told ihf.info two years ago, the ranking bore little relevance as his squad was undergoing a generational player change.

You have to go back 10 years for the last time Republic of Korea men had an uneventful IHF Men’s World Championship campaign. Spain 2013 saw a 21st-place finish, but it would take some time until they returned with full strength to the competition.