Despite reaching the final at the European Championships
Knorr with self-criticism: “Every time I think, why?”
January 31, 2026 – 2:45 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Even after the DHB selection reached the final at the European Handball Championship, Germany’s playmaker Juri Knorr still criticized himself. The reason was special.
Nils Kögler reports from Herning
The German national handball team made it to the final of the European Championship, but German playmaker Juri Knorr still found a reason to criticize himself. The DHB team won 31:28 against Croatia and thus secured their ticket to the final in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning against hosts Denmark.
While Knorr had an outstanding game in the main round final against France with ten goals and thus secured the semi-finals, he was only able to convince with a few good scenes in the first half against Croatia. However, in the second half, when Germany took a clear lead and pulled away from the Croatians, the 25-year-old remained largely invisible.
At the end, in the interview zone of the arena, Knorr had an explanation ready for this: “I thought too much about reaching the final,” he explained his weaker performance, but at the same time was pleased with the strong performance of his teammates: “They did an outstanding job and then made it.”
During the second half, Knorr could be seen repeatedly looking up at the video cube above the playing field, where, among other things, the playing time is displayed. It seemed as if the German playmaker was longing for the end of the game. An impression that was not misleading.
After the game, Knorr spoke openly about what he considered a bad habit and was harshly critical of himself: “I do it every time and every time I think: Why?” he scolded himself. “It’s a handball game, it lasts 60 minutes,” he reminded himself of the obvious again and described the request to himself as follows: “Play it to the end now and don’t look up there.” However, the excessive preoccupation with playing time is not a new phenomenon for him: “Unfortunately, I’ve been doing that since I was a small child,” reported Knorr, and gave himself the task of correcting his behavior: “I have to learn that.”
Knorr will get his next chance to do this on the big stage: on Sunday (from 6 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) he and the DHB selection will meet the dominant team of recent years in the European Championship final with Olympic champions and world champions Denmark. The German team faces a truly Herculean task. Knorr shouldn’t really have time to look at the clock there.
