Handball European Championship 2024: Handball: How Andreas Wolff is making the DHB team strong at the European Championships

The goalkeeper Andreas Wolff once achieved fame in Kraków, Poland. Back then, in the final of the European Championship eight years ago, he destroyed the Spaniards with his reflexes – and thus created the basis for the sensational victory of the German handball players. »Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Superwolff,” fans celebrated on social media. It wasn’t just his extraordinary saves that made him famous all at once, it was also the great emotions with which he always celebrated them. Back then, Wolff repeatedly clenched his fists and roared after every defensive action. It was as if his body was constantly discharging 100,000 volts.

The performance of the 32-year-old German goalkeeper at the start of the home European Championship was all the more remarkable. While there was a buzz around him in the large Düsseldorf football arena, while more than 53,000 fans celebrated the goalkeeper and, as repeatedly described in the media, soon found themselves in a state of “German handball frenzy”, the keeper remained conspicuously defensive.

Of course, Wolff was also happy about every successful save in the game against the Swiss – and also clenched his hands into a fist. But when he took a seat on the bench so that the team could compensate for a short-handed situation, he seemed as relaxed as he would have been in a training game. When the 27:14 victory was sealed late on Wednesday evening, the goalkeeper reported that his behavior on the field was based on a calculation. “I’m one of the more experienced players today, my role has changed,” he explained after his 146th international match the DHB team. “Many of the young players were very excited before this game,” he explained and added: “It was also about having someone in the team who radiated calm.”

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Dimming down the emotions didn’t do any harm, on the contrary. Wolff had held stronger than ever before in the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB), his parades, especially from the close-range throwing zone, had taken away all courage from the attackers. In the end, his catch rate was a spectacular 61 percent. “World class,” said middle blocker Julian Köster.

Wolff quickly managed to get into the heads of his opponents. That’s the secret of a strong goalkeeper, says Wieland Schmidt, 1980 Olympic champion with the GDR team, who is considered one of the best goalkeepers of all time. Wolff’s outstanding positional play and strong physique obviously impressed the opponents. “They then worry too often about who is standing in front of them,” says Schmidt and laughs: “And then it’s already too late.”

The man who made Wolff a world-class man sat on the opponent’s bench in the opening game of the European Championship. Jasmin Camdzic, known as “Jasko,” trained with Wolff for three years at HSG Wetzlar. And because he then worked extremely successfully with the current Flensburg goalkeeper Benjamin Buric and is now doing the same with Till Klimpke in Wetzlar, he is considered by experts to be the best goalkeeping coach in the Bundesliga.

At the time, when Wolff was pushing his way up, he still saw every goal conceded as an insult and he literally consumed himself. “In the beginning Andi destroyed himself,” remembers Camdzic. »Today he is so much calmer, not only as a personality but also as a goalkeeper. He’s holding up fantastically.” When Wolff met his mentor in front of the team locker rooms on Wednesday after the many interviews, he greeted him with a hug and said: “I didn’t even know you were sitting on the bench.” Camdzic countered with a big compliment. “I have created a monster,” said the goalkeeping coach in view of his former protégé’s sensational performance.

Wolff, who has been playing in Kielce since 2019 after stints in Großwallstadt, Wetzlar and Kiel, was able to achieve even better numbers during his time in the Bundesliga. His performance in a home game between HSG Wetzlar and Bergischer HC in autumn 2015, when he defused 70 percent of all balls, is legendary. The super goalkeeper and his former coach in Düsseldorf then talked a bit about the game before Wolff turned back to the media representatives. If he acts a little more reserved on the pitch, it’s also because he has to take his age into account in this respect, he joked: “If I yell like that in the first minute, then I might not be able to last 60 minutes. «

This statement contains a grain of truth. Because Wolff is well aware of how fragile his physique still is, having only been playing again for a few weeks. A slipped disc in the fall even threatened his career, as he said very openly. That’s why national coach Alfred Gislason looked nervously at his goalkeeper when he grabbed his neck during the opening game and performed unusual stretching exercises. “My body is fine,” Wolff commented on corresponding questions. But he also knows how great the burden is that he will face in the coming days.

From Sunday, when the DHB selection meets North Macedonia in Berlin, a new opponent awaits him every two days. That’s why his teammates and especially the national coach hope that the keeper’s body will hold out. Because the second man in goal, David Späth, is one of the 2023 junior world champions in the team. And thus one of the young and very excited players in the squad that Wolff wants and perhaps needs to calm down with his calm and level-headedness.

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