After reaching the final of the European Handball Championships
On live TV: National coach receives a funny gift
January 30, 2026 – 8:51 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The DHB team is in the European Championship final after the 31:28 win over Croatia. The national coach received a strange gift from ARD expert Dominik Klein.
After the victory in the European Championship semi-finals over Croatia (31:28), national coach Alfred Gíslason was given a golden buzzer by ARD expert Dominik Klein. At the end of the interview with the national coach, ARD presenter Alex Schlüter started with the farewell, wanted to congratulate the Icelander again, then he announced the gift: “Before you say goodbye: Dominik has thought a bit about something.”
Smirking, expert and ex-handball player Dominik Klein held out a golden buzzer to the national coach and addressed it directly to him: “Alfred, you know what happened. Now it’s about gold. So you can practice again.”
Spectators who diligently followed the European Handball Championships immediately knew what Klein was referring to: the preliminary round game against Serbia. At that time, Gíslason had pressed the buzzer with three minutes left and was one goal behind and thus called a timeout.
The only problem was: Gíslason used the timeout in the middle of a throw from Juri Knorr. The ball even landed in the goal, but the hit didn’t count because the timeout had already been taken and Germany lost the game. Although the defeat ultimately came with a three-goal difference, the public attributed it primarily to Gíslason because of his buzzer error.
The national coach laughed to Klein, immediately wanted to know whether it was a real buzzer and said with a smile: “Well, I think that’s very nice.” However, Klein didn’t just want the laurels for himself. He admitted that it was a co-operation between him and Jogi Bitter. Gíslason emphasized this again at the press conference after the game: “Jogi Bitter had a buzzer made for me. That’s awesome. That’s one of the best trophies I’ve received.”
Apparently overwhelmed by emotions, he even humorously announced that he would apply for four time-outs for the finale. Moderator Schlüter rounded off the conversation by emphasizing that the medal would be given on Sunday and the buzzer was the gift for the current moment.
