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.

The history of Korean handball is long and successful: In 1988 on home ground at Seoul the Korean men’s team became the first ever non-European finalists at Olympic Games. Later on and until 2012, Korea had been the leading force of Asian handball, where especially world star Kyung Shin Yoon was noticed and still is an all-time top scorer of German Bundesliga. Currently Yoon is in the coaching staff of the team, which is in the state of transition. Korea missed to qualify for the 2015 and 2017 World Championships, but now they're back.

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.

n 2007 Germany celebrated the World Championship title on home ground. At the 2019 event they hope for the same extra power provided from the stands in Berlin, Cologne and hopefully Hamburg. The new coach Christian Prokop took over the team in 2017 from Dagur Sigurdsson, who had steered the Germans to the 2016 EURO title (the second one after 2004). Though they missed the 2017 World Championship semi-final and the 2018 EURO semis, the expectations are high to make it to Herning.

With six World Championship trophies since 1995, France are record holders in this category - and they are mainly dominant since becoming EURO champions in 2006. From that trophy on, they took four world titles, three continental trophies and twice Olympic gold. In 2010 they were the first male handball team ever to hold all three major titles at the same time.

Winning the 2016 Olympic gold medals in a memorable final against defending champions France was the highlight of the long and successful Danish handball history. Before, the Danes had won gold medals on continental stage in 2008 and 2012 and became World Championship finalists twice in 2011 and 2013. Now the team of Nicolaj Jakobsen aims for the first ever gold medal at a World Championship, as one of the hosts. The Danish squad combines a mixture of experienced world stars such as Mikkel Hansen, Lasse Svan and Niklas Landin and multiple young talents.

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.

Four times they made it to the finals of the Asian Championships, but unfortunately lost all four times until they became silver medallists in 2010. Bahrain got on the map of international handball, when they had their first continental final, that they lost against Korea. Later on in 2014, 2016 and 2018, they were defeated three times in a row in the gold match by their neighbours Qatar – including two finals on home ground in Manama in 2014 and 2016.

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.

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.