In his last game as an active player at a major tournament for Switzerland, Andy Schmid once again tore a handball hall from its seats – and set a record.
When Andy Schmid picked up the player of the game award after his Swiss team’s 27:29 (9:13) defeat in the last preliminary round game against North Macedonia, his face visibly marked by emotions, loud cheers erupted in the Berlin Arena. Switzerland was now mathematically out of the race for the main round of the European Handball Championship, but it wasn’t just the red-clad supporters of the Swiss in the stands who frenetically celebrated the man with number 2.
40 years – twelve goals – and a record
“I cried for three and a half minutes in the last five minutes. So sadness is probably an understatement.”said Schmid after what was probably his last gala in the national jersey: “I have to go home and collect my thoughts. I have an association, I have a family and then I will decide in the next few days whether this might even be my last game.”
Schmid, who now plays at home with Kriens-Luzern, but pulled the strings in the middle of the backcourt for the Rhein-Neckar Löwen for years, was twice German champion and was Bundesliga player of the season five times in a row, wants to end his active career in the summer. But he didn’t look like a handball pensioner that Tuesday evening. Now 40 years old, the playmaker scored twelve goals against the Macedonians – an incredible performance. And that in just 16 attempts. And with every goal, the hall cheered a little louder.
Schmid: “There is no handball god”
It was all the more tragic that the ball slipped out of his hand in the close final phase and the Macedonians scored in return to give them a 28:27 lead. Smith: “I now know that there is no handball god. If a handball god had watched the game here, he would have let us win.”
It was Schmid who brought the Swiss back into the game – as he has done so often in the past 21 (!) years since his debut for Switzerland.
There was even a fast counterattack – and of course the dreaded empty throws, in which Schmid rises up from a standing position and hits exactly the corner where the goalkeeper doesn’t go. His twelfth and final goal was a very special one, as his 1,094th. goals for Switzerland, he overtook Swiss handball icon Marc Baumgartner, who has 1,093. As if Schmid knew that it took exactly twelve hits for this record.
Eternal icon of Swiss handball
On the way back from his Player of the Match award, one or two compatriots hugged Schmid. Goalkeeper Nikola Portner, the best Swiss man alongside Schmid, was the first and gave his teammate a long hug. When the team then went into the fan corner, Schmid obviously didn’t want to be at the front, but his colleagues used gentle force to force him to get the individual applause again.
In the summer, Schmid swaps his number 2 for the C – for coach – and becomes national coach. Naturally. Because handball without Andy Schmid simply doesn’t exist in Switzerland. “It’s time to leave the field free for further development”said Schmid: “I also know that it is not easy to thrive in the shadow of me.”