Audio: Flensburg’s Golla: “Little things will decide” (0 min)
Status: 01.10.2025 9:33 am
Maik Machulla shaped an era at the handball Bundesliga club SG Flensburg-Handewitt. Now he is a coach of the Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Today Machulla meets his former club for the first time in the DHB Cup.
Machulla could have waived again under these circumstances. Because even if he is now a coach of the handball Bundesliga club Rhein-Neckar Löwen, the 48-year-old of SG Flensburg-Handewitt still feels connected. Which is not surprising.
Machulla: “It will be emotional”
Finally, from 2012 to spring 2023, he was a player, assistant coach and head coach in the service of the Schleswig-Holsteiner, which Machulla now meets as opponents for the first time since his release from Flensburgers. Today (7.30 p.m.) the two teams face each other in the second round of the DHB Cup.
Tight wire to many players
Machulla knows exactly about the special constellation: “This will be emotional. I meet a lot of old companions, also know many players very, very well and still have a very good wire for many.” With national team captain Johannes Golla, for example, he worked at the SG “very trustingly”. That is why it is “strange” for him to play against an opponent now, in which he knows “so many people personally”.
“It’s no secret that this is a special game for me.”
Maik Machulla
Greatest successes in Flensburg
Maik Machula 2019 with the master shell.
He took his first steps as a coach as an assistant to the current Flensburg sports director and former chief coach Ljubomir Vranjes, and Machulla played together with SG managing director Holger Glandorf. However, it was also the current Flensburger Boss who released him a little more than two years ago. It was the abrupt end of an era with many highlights.
“I celebrated my greatest success in Flensburg,” recalls Machulla. As a trainer, he led the club to two championships (2018 and 2019), as a player, the native Greifswald won the Champions League (2014) and the DHB Cup (2015). No question: Machulla left traces at his former place of work and moved something. He is estimated for this, has entered the proud club history.
SG “No desire”
But of course all of this no longer matters when the lions and the SG face each other in Heidelberg on Wednesday. A cup game against Flensburg is “not a desired one”, Machulla admits openly and honestly. He doesn’t just mean that with a view to his deep personal connection to the opponent. On the contrary: the trainer has great respect for the quality of the North Germans.
The 48-year-old raves about the “Power”, who brings his ex-team to the field. In each position, the Flensburgers are also equipped with “maximum high individual quality”. “We need an outstanding performance, the spectators and a special atmosphere,” Machulla hopes that the lions will catch a cream day by their fans. And he keeps the reunion with the old love in good memory.
