The double Olympic Champions (1996 and 2004) and 2003 World Champions have waited for their next trophy more than 14 years. Since then, the Croats had almost been part of all semi-finals at major tournaments and took two silver medals on the world stage (2005, 2009), two on the European stage (2008, 2010) and even more bronze medals. At their EURO on home ground in 2018, finally the pressure was too huge and the early injury of their mastermind Domagoj Duvnjak hit them hard - the Croats missed the semis and finished on the fifth position.

When talking about Macedonian handball, it is mostly about Kiril Lazarov. The 38 years old shooter is a national legend - and a record-breaking star: No player ever scored more goals during a single World Championship like Lazarov in 2009 (92) and at a single EURO event (2012). Still, he is the mastermind behind all success in the Macedonian team, though others such as goalkeeper Borko Ristovski, line player Stojanche Stoilov or left wing Dejan Manaskov take more and more responsibility.

Rarely, a national bank holiday is given to a country from it’s government because of handball - this history happened in Iceland one day after the handball team won their first ever Olympic silver for their country in 2008 in Beijing. Some of those Olympic heroes are still in the current team, including Icelandic record player and scorer Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson and goalkeeper Björgvin Pal Gustavsson. Besides, both won the 2010 EURO bronze medal at Vienna with Iceland. Iceland re-engaged the mastermind behind the 2008 silver medal, former Danish national team coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson.

Since the former FC Barcelona player and Champions League winner Matteo Garralda took over the Chilean team, they have developed a lot. Under his leadership, they took their biggest success on continental level by making it to the final of the Pan American Championship on home ground in 2016. At the World Championship in France 2017, they made history by their first ever group phase win, beating Belarus. Three brothers imprinted the Chilean team in the previous years – the Feuchtmanns.

The golden era of the so-called Bengan Boys is long gone, but now Sweden have build another top generation. They made it to the 2018 EHF EURO final in Zagreb, though beaten by Spain - after the “Tre Kronors” had won the EURO title four times between 1994 and 2002. Now the Icelandic Kristjan Andresson is the head coach, following on the duo Ola Lindgren/Staffan Olsson, who had steered Sweden to the 2012 Olympic final.

The men’s national team are still aiming for their second ever medal at major events since silver at the 1986 World Championship. In 2004 and 2012, they made it to the Olympic semi-finals, but finished fourth rank twice. At the 2017 World Championship in France, Hungary eliminated Olympic Champions Denmark. In 2017 Swedish Ljubomir Vranjes took over Veszprem and the national team after he had steered Flensburg to the 2014 Champions League title.

When Qatar were awarded host of the 2017 Men’s World Championship in 2011, they started like a machine to build up a competitive team for the “home tournament”. Many players were added to the Qatar team, a whole administration was built around the team and the Qatar Handball Association (QHA). In April 2013 Qatar made the most important step towards a brilliant future, signing Valero Rivera as their coach, who had just steered Spain to the gold medal at the 2013 World Championship on home ground. With Rivera’s knowledge and experience they started their mission for 2015.

Argentina took their seventh trophy at Pan American Championships end of June 2018 at Greenland – and mainly their coach made history: After Jordi Ribera (Spain), Valero Rivera (Qatar) and Toni Gerona (Tunisia), Manuel Cadenas steered the “Gladiators” to the gold medals – therefore all four current continental champions are coached by Spaniards.

Three times – in 2014, 2016 and 2018 – the Angolan men’s team made it to the semi-finals of the African Championships twice (in 2016 and 2018) and they took the bronze medals home to Angola. Beating Morocco 29:26 at the 2018 African Championships at Gabon meant the fourth ticket straight to a Men’s World Championship for them. Almost all players are signed by clubs in the capital Luanda, few such as centre back Edvaldo Ferreira (Etoile de Tunis/Tunisia), play abroad. But coach Alexandre Diogo Machado formed a team, which is competitive on the continental stage.