Men’s Handball: We are on the world map again

This time last year we ended the year with, just like in the national team, a process that started in 2020 in domestic clubs, thanks to which Hungarian youngsters have more and more important roles.

This year only strengthened it. Veszprémi KKFT (Fehér-B.Á.L. Veszprém since the summer), founded by former world-class left back and playmaker József Éles, employs only young Hungarian players who finished its first topflight season with 12 wins in 7th place. NEKA, built on “children” from Balatonboglár, was predicted to relegate even before the start of the first division league season, but the team, which has an average age of 20.5, finished seventh awaits the spring of the 2021-2022 season.

Our legendary goalkeeper Nándor Fazekas's son Gergő (b. 2003) is considered one of the greatest promises of recent times, and Telekom Veszprém signed him in November. Although the exceptional talent is going abroad next year, he could return in 2024 to NB I armed with experience and strength.

It is a great success that Pick Szeged managed to keep its pivot player, Bence Bánhidi, in May, for whom top European teams – including Barca in Spain, PSG in France or Veszprém – lined up. However, he stayed and extended his contract until June 2025. A few months later, he helped Szeged to win the league.

Of course, Bánhidi is not a key player for the team near the Tisza only, but also for our national team that is preparing for the upcoming European Championship that Slovakia and Hungary co-host. The team led by István Gulyás, Chema Rodríguez, and László Nagy only lost in regular time to defending European champion Spain in the 2021 calendar year, and with a little luck, they could have caught the French, who later won the Olympics in Tokyo, in the World Championship quarterfinals in Egypt, but lost in extra time and finished fifth.

We defeated Cape Verde, Uruguay, Germany, Brazil, and Poland at the aforementioned World Championship in January although, before our first match, our players boarded the bus without knowing if there would be a match or not as the coronavirus pandemic that hovered over the tournament as the sword of Damocles, also nested early in Cairo. In comparison, we managed to exclude the outside world, we did our job well, and with our results and stable performance, we proved that after a long time that we have to be taken into account, and we are back on the world handball map. The fact that we are not talking through your hat can be supported by the Hungarian national team winning back and forth against Spain and Slovakia to attune to the European Championship – which starts in 18 days –, then surpassing European Championship runner-up Croatia and winning the Euro Cup. We have so much appetite that when we defeated Bosnia, that also participates in the European Championship, by only two goals at the beginning of November, many people were dissatisfied.

However, we can look to the future optimistically because of our national team's confident and balanced performance. Also, from now on, we can cheer in Budapest, Szeged and soon in Tatabánya in the new arenas that satisfy all needs; Croatia's legendary player Zlatko Horvat will play in the Hungarian K&H League; our two Champions League teams Pick Szeged and Telekom Veszprém remain at the forefront of Europe; we have our Bánhidi, Máté Lékai, Dominik Máthé, Roland Mikler or Fazekas. But let us not settle for this, let's just be insatiable!

Translated by Vanda Orosz