From the Champions League to financial: top player Antje Döll speaks about the bankruptcy of HB Ludwigsburg and its concerns about German handball.
Antje Döll has played handball for HB Ludwigsburg for ten years – or for the previous club SG BBM Bietigheim. The 36-year-old would also have loved to end her career in the baroque city. But The bankruptcy of the Ludwigsburg women Has ended this liaison suddenly.
The final Bundesliga out of the HB Ludwigsburg If the captain of the German national team could no longer shock: “For me personally, it was somehow clear beforehand that there will be no rescue,” she says in an interview with SWR Sport. Too many top players would have left the club in the meantime“Then I already considered a real team to be very difficult”.
Döll had lost confidence in HB Ludwigsburg
Döll is one of these players. She has been playing at the Neckarsulm sports union since mid-August. At some point, she no longer participated in the desperate attempt by those responsible, but somehow to get up for a year Bundesliga: “Unfortunately, I lost my confidence in the responsible persons.”
If necessary, she would also have given up salary in favor of her heart. However, that was never an issue: “Nobody knows whether it would have been.” However, she would have granted the city and club that it would continue, she was also “still sad”. But Ludwigsburg is a thing of the past. “I have to say that with the change here I had to complete the topic of Ludwigsburg.”
Döll’s heart also hung at the HB Ludwigsburg
She asked for the season preparation with the new club quite a bit, “you were distracted a lot”. But the HB Ludwigsburg was more than just a handball team for the players. It was like a family. “There were always a few emotional moments. The fact that Xenia Smits then sat in the stands in my first test game, so somehow tears come.”
It is difficult to get rid of it when the environment always asks how it works – immediately after the disaster. “Of course, I can’t blame people that they ask how I find, which I also find very nice. I hope that it will just be less from week to week and that I have reached a hundred percent here.” Döll’s attention applies to the sports union Neckarsulm and the preparation for the Bundesliga start against HSG Bensheim/Auerbach next Friday (28.08.2025, 7:30 p.m.).
Döll takes care of the German Women’s handball
However, Döll is also concerned about the handball location of Germany. It is a “very, very bad sign” that the five-time German champions, three times the cup and European Cup winner no longer find sponsors in their own country and have to register bankruptcy. HB Ludwigsburg was the figurehead of German women’s handball.
“We made it to the Champions League final two years ago, which a German team had never made,” recalls Döll. “Some said: ‘This is the right direction’. We would also like to push the women’s handball with HB Ludwigsburg forward.” After all: “It will now be more exciting in the Bundesliga, definitely.” Nevertheless, Döll speaks of “madness” whether the bankruptcy.
She hoped that the World Handball in Germany (November 27 to December 14, 2025) can catch the image damage. She wants to contribute to this: “Personally, I wish that I don’t have to experience something like this again. It has already dragged my nerves very much. Now I hope that I can find my way into this team as quickly as possible, get my performance optimally and then start Top Ready in the World Cup.”
Broadcast on Wed., 27.8.2025 5:00 a.m., SWR Aktuell Baden-Württemberg, SWR
