Roos Daleman and Loïs van Vliet of VOC Amsterdam are not included in the final selection for next month’s European Handball Championship. National coach Per Johansson reduced his preselection from 35 to 14 players. Four more names will be added at a later stage.
“The reason I have now selected fourteen players, and not eighteen, is mainly because a number of players are injured,” says Johansson. “These players are still in the race for the final selection. I don’t want to put injured players on the shortlist and possibly have to remove them from the list later.”
The selection does not include a single player who plays in the Dutch league. The former VOC players Debbie Bont (Volendam), Bo van Wetering (Heerhugowaard), Maxime Struijs (Landsmeer), Nikita van der Vliet (Zaandam) and oë Sprengers (Haarlem) have been called up. Furthermore, Merel Freriks, who was born in Hoofddorp, has also been selected.
Orange is in the group with France, North Macedonia and Romania. All group matches are played in Skopje (North Macedonia). The first game is November 5 against Romania.
Final European Championship selection:
- Debbie Bont (Metz Handball, France)
- Rinka Duijndam (Sola HK, Norway)
- Kelly Dulfer (SG BBM Bietigheim, Germany)
- Merel Freriks (Brest Brittany Handball, France)
- Laura van der Heijden (Chambray Touraine Handball, France)
- Yara ten Holte (Borussia Dortmund, Germany)
- Angela Malestein (FTC Rail-Cargo Hungaria, Hungary)
- Kim Molenaar (København Håndbold, Denmark)
- Estavana Polman (Nykobing F. Håndboldklub, Denmark)
- Inger Smits (SG BBM Bietigheim, Germany)
- Zoe Sprengers (Borussia Dortmund, Germany)
- Maxime Struijs (SV Union Halle-Neustadt, Germany)
- Nikita van der Vliet (Nykøbing F. Håndboldklub, Denmark)
- Bo van Wetering (Odense Handbold, Denmark)