The stars of the 2024 European Handball Championships provide personal insights like never before: national coach Alfred Gislason, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff and playmaker Juri Knorr talk about strokes of fate, the dark side of the sport and their own mistakes.
They are supposed to get Germany into handball fever: At the 2024 European Championship in their own country, it will be national coach Alfred Gislason, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff and playmaker Juri Knorr. The sports show presents the three stars personally in three 30-minute films – can now be seen exclusively in the ARD media library.
The 64-year-old Gislason has achieved everything as a club coach, including winning the German championship seven times and the Champions League three times. He won the triple with THW Kiel in 2012; the team won all 34 Bundesliga games that season.
Alfred Gislason shows his Icelandic homeland
A time that the Icelander also looks back on self-critically: “I was quite a dictator back then and too often went too far in my criticism or how I dealt with people,” says Gislason in the documentary “Alfred Gislason – fateful days of the national coach”which can be seen on January 7th at 4:50 p.m. on ARD.
Alfred Gislason (r.) meets his parents in Iceland in the ARD documentary.
Author Hendrik Deichmann visited Gislason in his Icelandic homeland, met the former handball national player’s large family and visited with Gislason the grave of Kara Guðrún Melstað, with whom Gislason was married until her death from cancer in 2021. These are personal insights that the Icelander has never shown before.
Andreas Wolff is unusually self-critical
Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff (Industria Kielce) reveals in the film “Andreas Wolff – the daredevil in goal” completely new sides of himself: The otherwise self-confident 32-year-old exercises clear self-criticism and admits mistakes. “This blind ambition. This somewhat selfish: ‘I always have to be the best. I always have to show everything straight away. I have to, I have to, I have to.'”
Andreas Wolff (r.) with friend Kevin Gerwin in Wolff’s apartment in Kielce.
Wolff explains how he worked on himself – also with the help of a psychologist. The hero of the 2016 European Championship title wants to show new sides of himself. “I hope that my role in the team is a little different now. That I give my teammates the feeling that I respect them, that I value them and that I want each of us to experience maximum success and that I now see us even more as a team.
Juri Knorr: Already Germany’s at 23 Bearers of hope
If Wolff returns to his former strength after his slipped disc, he can be one of two world-class players in the German national team. The other is Juri Knorr – the Rhein-Neckar Löwen playmaker has the greatest responsibility at the home European Championship. And that at just 23 years old. “I’ve worked for that, I want to be on the record and help the team,” says Knorr to the sports show.
Juri Knorr (r.) and girlfriend Friederike in their shared apartment in Heidelberg.
Off the field, however, he is very cautious about the hype that has arisen around him. He always struggles with his fame and life as a famous handball star.
As a young boy, you obviously don’t think about what it means to be a professional athlete – and what is then taken away from you.
In the documentary, the playmaker explains why Knorr is sometimes jealous of his sister’s student life, how he deals with the growing pressure and how he thinks about comparisons with the “Bad Boys” from 2016 “Juri Knorr – silent star on the big stage”.