Six milestones to watch at the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship
09 Jan. 2025
A new edition of the IHF Men’s World Championship, the 29th, is upon us, and with only five days before the start of the competition, we are taking a look on what records and milestones might be achieved at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025. Brace yourselves, because this will get an in-depth look at the past and the future of the competition.
Fourth time a charm for four players?
The record for the largest number of titles won at the IHF Men’s World Championship is still held by Thierry Omeyer, with five gold medals (2001, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017), with five other French players – Nikola Karabatic, Jerome Fernandez, Mickael Guigou, Daniel Narcisse and Cedric Sorhaindo – following suit, with four titles.
There are several others players with three titles, including Danish legends Mikkel Hansen and Niklas Landin, who have retired from international handball and will not take the court at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025. But four other Danish players, Magnus Landin Jacobsen, Mads Mensah Larsen, Simon Hald and Henrik Møllgaard have also been part of the side which won three consecutive titles in 2019, 2021 and 2023, and can seal their fourth title in a row.
The four players are part of the squad called by Nikolaj Jacobsen for the 29th IHF Men’s World Championship and can tie the five French players with four titles, but Denmark still have a long way to go, needing yet another fantastic outing, but without some key players from the team which won the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Sagosen's consistency to reap rewards?
Consistency is very hard to achieve at the IHF Men’s World Championship, therefore scoring at least 39 goals in four consecutive editions is a feature difficult to check for most of the players. However, Sander Sagosen is not most of the players, he is Norway’s stalwart and the big hope for the Scandinavian side to secure a medal on their home court at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025.
Sagosen made his debut in the world handball flagship competition in 2017, when Norway returned and secured a silver medal. Two years later, at Denmark/Germany 2019, the Scandinavian side clinched another place on the podium, still as runners-up, conceding the final to Denmark.
But the back has been nothing short of superb, with 41 goals at France 2017, 51 goals at Denmark/Germany 2019, 54 goals at Egypt 2021 and 39 goals at Poland/Sweden 2023. In total, Sagosen has scored 188 times at the IHF Men’s World Championship, therefore being on track to score 200, when he hits 12 goals in the Unity Arena. Freshly recovered from an injury, Norway’s back will be key for his team’s ambitions at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025.
Triple digits for Gidsel
In only two appearances at the IHF Men’s World Championship, the 2023 IHF Male Player of the Year, Mathias Gidsel, has already scored 99 goals. Therefore, he needs one more for his 100th, which he is due to get in the opener at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025, when Denmark feature in the opening day in the Jyske Bank Boxen, against Algeria.
Since his emergence on the biggest of stages, Gidsel has been unstoppable, scoring 448 times in 79 matches for Denmark. He has been named the All-Star right back in his maiden IHF Men’s World Championship, at Egypt 2023, as well as the MVP and the top scorer at Poland/Sweden 2023, when he had 61 goals.
Add the MVP titles at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the mix, as well as the top scorer title at the EHF EURO 2024 and the one at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and also that he is only 25 years old, Gidsel could be one of the best scorers in the history of the IHF Men’s World Championship when he will retire.
250 for Salinas?
Since their maiden appearance in 2011, Chile have been present at every edition of the IHF Men’s World Championship, including the next one, co-hosted by Croatia, Denmark and Norway in January and February 2025. And Salinas has participated in every one of them, being a cornerstone in the South American side’s back line.
So far, the right back, who is now 35 years old, has scored 241 goals in the previous seven editions of the World Championship he played in, being one of the most consistent goal scorers in the competition. He has finished fourth in the top goal scorer standings at Qatar 2015 and 10th at Egypt 2021.
The right back became the team captain after the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship and helped Chile finish 26th at Poland/Sweden 2023, one position higher than two years before at Egypt 2021. In total, Chile have won 14 of the 49 matches played at the world handball flagship competition and want even more. Now, Salinas is eager to become one of the few players with at least 250 goals at the World Championship, needing only 59 to become the fifth with at least 300 goals. He is also the player who scored the largest number of goals in a single match in the competition, 18 against the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2015.
Who's going to hit 5000 goals for the first time?
Imagine scoring 1000 goals at the IHF Men’s World Championship. Then 2000. 3000 is the next target. Next? 4000. Now, Germany and Sweden can hit the 5000-goal milestone, becoming the first two teams to score this number of goals in the world handball flagship competition.
Currently, both Germany and Sweden are at 4803 goals, needing 197 goals to hit that milestone. The latter side played two more matches to reach this number, having featured 187 times on the court, while Germany have only 123 wins as opposed to Sweden’s 129.
Germany have a better chance of reaching the 5000-goals milestone first, as they are playing one day ahead of Sweden in this competition, but the team with the largest number of goals will be the one which stays alive the most in the competition, which is hard to predict now, as both sides will be looking for a medal.
A fresh face to make its debut
The 29th edition of the IHF Men’s World Championship will see only one team making its first appearance in the world handball flagship competition. Guinea will become only the eighth African side to take part at the IHF Men’s World Championship and the second African side to make its debut in the last three edition, after Cape Verde broke their duck at Egypt 2021.
At only their fourth appearance at the CAHB African Men’s Handball Championship, Guinea snatched the fifth place last year, their best performance in the continental competition, and subsequently made the cut for the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, as the last qualified team from Africa.
They will certainly find it hard to make it to the main round, with three European sides in Group D, as they face Hungary, the Netherlands and North Macedonia, but only making their debut will certainly be a huge boost for handball in the country, as they aim to become a staple in the African handball landscape.