The anticipation is growing day by day: National player Juri Knorr is looking forward to the German handball players’ opening game at the home European Championship in Düsseldorf. “No player on our team has ever experienced a game like this, and I certainly haven’t. I only know such an atmosphere as a spectator in a football stadium,” said the playmaker to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
The selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) will meet Switzerland on January 10th in the Düsseldorf stadium in front of over 50,000 spectators and wants to start their mission to win the European Championship there. “This is a unique opportunity that we should enjoy despite all the emotionality and excitement,” said Knorr about the planned world record audience.
The 23-year-old from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen is considered the great hope of national coach Alfred Gislason’s team and has been increasingly in the public eye for some time. “Of course I noticed the hype that surrounded me after the World Cup last year, and that also has a dark side,” said Knorr. “What is expected of me and what is written about me is a game of extremes, it goes up and down.”
Knorr also warned of the players’ increasing overload in the busy handball schedule. It’s okay to “play twice a week, no problem at all. But we need regeneration phases. When I did my sports diploma, we learned in the area of training how important longer break phases are,” he said: “It is It’s crazy if you play from July to June, my longest break was the three days of Christmas. That’s really brutal.”