Goalkeeper oldie Johannes Bitter is officially dismissed from the DHB selection in the international match against Denmark in Hamburg.
175 international matches in around 20 years. The most exciting, Johannes Bitter is sure, he experienced in the last few meters of his national team career. “After all, I can say that I was there at what is probably the craziest tournament in DHB history,” said the handball goalkeeper, looking back at the “Corona-EM 2022” when the Hamburger unexpectedly made a comeback in the German jersey.
But now it’s finally over. After the second test match against world champions Denmark on Sunday (2:15 p.m. / ZDF) in Hamburg’s Barclays Arena, Bitter will officially say goodbye to the national team. “He has done a lot for German handball for a long time and is one of the great players in history,” national coach Alfred Gislason said in recognition of the experienced goalkeeper.
In fact: Bitter, now 40 years old, has fought quite a few battles in the DHB selection. His debut on January 4th was the beginning of a long career, crowned by the 2007 World Cup triumph at the Winter’s Tale in Germany. The success 16 years ago marks the last medal by a German team at a world championship.
Two Olympic participations for Jogi Bitter
“Playing and winning a World Cup final on home soil is of course an outlier among the many highlights, a title is always associated with special memories. But playing for your country at the Olympic Games is also incredible,” said Bitter. In 2008 in Beijing and 2021 in Tokyo he was at the Olympics.
After the games in Japan, Bitter had actually announced his departure, but he was still there in case of an emergency. And less than half a year later, the 2.05 m man was back in the DHB goal. When the corona virus broke out in the German team, Gislason asked his veteran for help – and he rushed straight from vacation to the European Championship. “Really crazy,” Bitter thinks with some distance. Despite a total of 16 corona (out) cases, Germany was still seventh at the time.
Bitter’s career in the DHB team has been marked by several interruptions. In 2011, the keeper of HSV Hamburg took a break for the first time, his interest “in handball had noticeably decreased,” he reported. The first return followed in 2014, after a few interludes he was back in 2019 as a permanent member of the DHB team. In his living room he now says goodbye to the DHB team – really forever?
It’s “crass” that Bitter is going now, said DHB sports director Axel Kromer. “But I know very well that he would be ready to step in again at any time if the need arose.” In any case, Bitter is far from thinking about the end of his career. He still has “many years” ahead of him in the club, he still has “the necessary fire” in him, he assured: “What could be nicer than playing handball?”