By Ulrike Krieger and Lisa Siegel
It’s the next giant duel in the Liqui Moly Handball Bundesliga!
European Cup winner Füchse Berlin meets Champions League winner SC Magdeburg today (8.30 p.m./Dyn, Bild TV, BILD.de, SPORTBILD.de).
It’s also the next cracker with a gigantic player: Foxes star Mathias Gidsel (24) was not only the most valuable player (MVP) at the last Olympic Games, but also at the last World Cup. The Dane is currently the best left-handed backcourt in the world. His speed, his playfulness – and his unbelievable throwing variations.
Gidsel: “Actually, the French legend Luc Abalo (3x European champion, 3x world champion, 3x Olympic champion; ed.) is to blame. When I was ten or twelve years old, he was my idol. I watched everything I could of him on TV and YouTube.”
Surprise for Mathias Gidsel (r.), Luc Abalo came to Berlin for a photo shoot Photo: Foxes Berlin
Why Abalo?
Gidsel: “He wasn’t that tall but he was so incredibly creative and the way he could throw the ball was just awesome. Yes, maybe that’s one reason why my shots are unconventional on goal.”
Abalo is still Gidsel’s role model today: the foxes star even wears it on his foot and plays with the Puma “Abalosphere” shoe.
Magdeburg’s captain Christian O’Sullivan (32): “It’s difficult to stop him. He’s simply one of the best players in the league. He has a very good one-on-one. But also a very good throw. It’s awkward to meet him. We have to try to be compact against him so he can’t dominate the game.”
The firecracker foxes against Magdeburg
O’Sullivan not only has respect for Gidsel, but also for the foxes: “Berlin showed how good they are last year. With Gidsel they upped the ante a bit in terms of speed. They turned out very, very well.” And adds: “It’s a very open game. But I hope that we have a slightly broader squad and that we can use that against Berlin.”
Luc Abalo (left) is Mathias Gidsel’s great idol, here they are talking about Abalo’s new shoe Photo: Foxes Berlin
And Gidsel says: “We have solved our away problem, just won twice in Leipzig and Stuttgart. Now we’re tackling our Magdeburg problem, we lost to them last season. I’m very optimistic. We’ve got a new mentality, once we’re behind there’s no panic and no chaos, we keep playing our thing having fun. We are not afraid, Magdeburg is the favourite, but we are all very much looking forward to this duel.”