Two weeks ago, the Füchse Berlin ensured a handball quake with that of Stefan Kretzschmar and Jaron Siewert. Since then it has not been going well with the Berliners.
At least the laugh has not passed Mathias Gidsel. With a very friendly facial expression, the currently best handball player in the world is in the training center of the Foxes Berlin. Gidsel’s smile looks honest, because Gidsel really smiles honestly anyway. And yet these days it works noticeably more in the head and also on the face of the Danish.
Sporty dampers in the middle of personnel chaos
Two hearty defeats against Magdeburg and Gummersbach Not only did the foxes’ start to the season have recently destroyed. You have also given the title ambitions of the defending champion two possibly serious dampers. And yet they look almost insignificant compared to the large chaos that the foxes currently currently exist in the club and also also involves the defeats.
As a reminder: Almost two weeks ago, the Berliners around Managing Director Bob Hanning had with the Immediate layoffs of sports director Stefan Kretzschmar and coach Jaron Siewert ensured a quake that was noticeable beyond the boundaries of handball. At that time, Kretzschmar had already announced that he did not want to extend his contract, which is running by summer 2026.
But Jaron Siewert? He assumed to sign an already negotiated contract extension at his meeting with the foxes officers on September 4th. Instead, it was released. Bob Hanning-no less than Siewert’s sporty foos-apologized for the outstanding, justify him with public pressure and was recently boomed by the fox fans.
“We are people and not machines”
“Of course we notice the unrest,” says Mathias Gidsel on Tuesday and adds: “We are in a very difficult phase.” When Gidsel speaks of these difficulties, he means the sporty. After all, commenting on the surrounding area does not bring anything, he says, “because our responsibility is on the pitch.” And yet Gidsel also does not contest the interactions that arise: “We are also people and not machines that can simply continue as in last year.”
In any case, the youngest two Bundesliga appearances of the foxes were by no means inexplicable, not even surprising. It would also not be surprising if the foxes on Thursday (6:45 p.m.) also lose their Champions League home game against the Danish top club Aalborg Handbold. The cut away from Siewert to the new coach Nicolej Krickau was too hard. “So far we had no real way to train with him properly,” says Gidel.
Nicolej Krickau steps in big footsteps
Change of coach within a season generally only have difficult to calculate consequences. All the more when the dismissed coach shaped his team for years and just led to the first German championship in the club’s history. Nicolej Krickau also knows that. “The players have enough excuses,” says the Danish coach about the latest defeats.
The same applies to the 38-year-old himself. Krickau has to step into very large footsteps at a rapid pace, although these are not even really dried in the mushy chaos of the foxes. In addition, Siewert only had to go at short notice because Bob Hanning Krickau absolutely wanted to sign from sports director and coach in his new double function.
Ex-foxes trainer Jaron Siewert calculates: “Human disappointment”
Jaron Siewert has led Foxes Berlin to the first championship title in the club’s history. No trainer also won the league in younger years. He doesn’t just want to leave his youth club left.more
Get to know at a rapid pace
In this double function, Krickau now has to stabilize the currently athletic -leaning ship of the foxes at a hurry. Tactics are irrelevant, he says, “I have to get to know the players.” Usually as a trainer you have a short two months ago to get to know the needs, corners and edges of your protégés in many individual conversations, says Krickau, “we have to do that on the side.”
Krickau is of course also required as a moderator of a complicated overall situation. He has to lead his protégés through the discussions that are currently available around the foxes. “We have to accept that this topic around us exists,” says Krickau, “but today we have made the plan together that we want to make our world a little smaller.”
Gidsel expects a reaction
Krickau will certainly have made this plan in coordination with his leader and compatriot Gidsel. The duo knows itself from his common Danish past at GOG Håndbold. Just as Mathias Gidsel also knows the mechanisms very well, which his foxes are now supposed to move back out of the little one. “You can lose in Gummersbach,” says Gidsel, “but it’s not okay how we presented each other. There was no reaction, no energy – that hurts.”
That is why the Dane now expects exactly that from his team: a reaction. “Maybe we will throw it again in this phase again, it doesn’t matter. But we have to fight,” says Gidel and smiles a little bit more combative than before.
Broadcast: RBB The day, September 16, 2025, 6:30 p.m.
