Match ball used, HBL history written: SC Magdeburg is German handball champion again for the first time in 21 years.
Coach Bennet Wiegert’s team secured the early title win by beating HBW Balingen-Weilstetten 31:26 (15:15).
With the 30th win in the 32nd league game, the SCM can no longer be ousted from the top of the Bundesliga in the two remaining games.
More than two decades after the legendary team around coach Alfred Gislason, who watched the game from the stands, and star left winger Stefan Kretzschmar, Magdeburg and their enthusiastic fans celebrated their return to the German handball throne on Thursday evening in the local Getec Arena .
“A thousand chapeaus in front of my phenomenal team”
The SCM follows record champions THW Kiel, who had won the title in the past two seasons.
Four days after the unfortunate loss of the final in the European League (39:40 after extra time at Benfica Lisbon), SCM struggled for a long time with relegation candidate Balingen. Only in the final phase were the hosts able to pull away decisively.
“A thousand times chapeau in front of my phenomenal team. I can only take my hat off,” said Wiegert.
The 40-year-old, who was born in Magdeburg, described winning the championship in the “SID” interview as “madness. Our step-by-step plan planned to reduce the gap to the big two – to Kiel and Flensburg. The current result was unimaginable.”
As a reminder: Magdeburg was 15 (!) points behind the top two teams last season.
Thanks to the success against Balingen, the Green-Reds increased their points account to 60:4 points on Thursday evening – and used the first of their three master match balls straight away. Chaser Kiel (52:10), who still had the upper hand in the cup final, has no chance in the final spurt of the season.
These are the architects of success at SC Magdeburg
The architects of success are undoubtedly Managing Director Marc-Henrik Schmedt and, above all, Wiegert.
The coach, who also holds the post of Magdeburg sports director, took over the fortunes of the financially and sportingly stumbling traditional club in autumn 2015 and led the ten-time East German champion back to the national top with a mixture of hard work and wild determination. The surprising title win at the Club World Cup in autumn was now the icing on the cake.
Wiegert, who had witnessed the only all-German championship title in 2001 as a player, gradually strengthened the team with players such as left-hander Omar Ingi Magnusson or playmaker Philipp Weber and implemented a speed handball that is unparalleled in Germany.
If the SCM also wins its last two games of the season, the biggest lead at the top of the league beckons since 2013, when Kiel distanced its rival from Flensburg by seven points at the end of the season.