10 magic moments that shaped the EHF Champions League in 2023

10 memorable EHF Champions League moments in 2023

(in chronological order)

Finally, FTC qualify for ‘their’ EHF FINAL4

For years, the club based closest to the venue of the annual EHF FINAL4 in Budapest never qualified for the event. But 2023 is the year it all changed for FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria – and in an utterly spectacular way, too. FTC clearly lost the first leg of the quarter-final at home against Metz, 32:26, only to turn the tie around by winning the return leg 33:26 in France. Finally arrived at ‘their’ EHF FINAL4, FTC won the semi-final against Team Esbjerg, but had their fairy tale ended in the final by Vipers Kristiansand.

Fans at MVM Dome set attendance world record

For almost a decade, the world record number of visitors for a women’s handball match stood at 19,467 from the 2013 IHF World Championship final between Serbia and Brazil. But the ever-growing popularity of the EHF FINAL4 Women has culminated in a new best mark, set on 3 June 2023, when 20,022 fans were in the stands of the MVM Dome for the semi-finals. EHF President Michael Wiederer called the record “a fantastic milestone for women’s handball and an enormous proof for the constantly growing quality of the game.”

Sweet seven for evergreen Katrine Lunde

“I just can’t get enough” – could that be Katrine Lunde’s favourite song? The Vipers Kristiansand goalkeeper added another chapter to her legendary career by becoming the first female player with seven EHF Champions League titles, matching the overall record between genders set by Andrei Xepkin. Turned 43 in March, Lunde remains an evergreen on the handball courts, who is still just as eager to win prizes as the Norwegian was two decades ago.

Gísli Kristjánsson, or who needs a shoulder to play handball?

Having dislocated his shoulder in the match against Barça, the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2023 seems over for SC Magdeburg’s Gísli Kristjánsson after the semi-final; media even report that evening he is out for the rest of 2023. Seems, indeed, as Kristjánsson returns to LANXESS arena for the final against Industria Kielce the following day. He doesn’t start the match, but steps on court when Magdeburg needs him and gives his team the edge once more. The trophy, the MVP award, and a life-long story to tell for Kristjánsson.

Magdeburg back on the throne, after more than two decades

A test of patience. And a test of character. SC Magdeburg have passed them both with flying colours. The German side lifted the EHF Champions League trophy back in 2002. They hadn’t featured in the competition anymore since the 2005/06 season when they returned for 2022/23, but then made it all the way again – 21 years after that first triumph – by beating Barça in the semi-final and Kielce in the final of the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. Bennet Wiegert celebrated both successes – in 2002 as a player, in 2023 as their head coach.

Legendary coaches Juan Carlos Pastor and Gábor Elek say farewell

Some coaches stick for many, many years with the same club. Other coaches leave their unique mark on a club. And only few coaches do both, like Juan Carlos Pastor and Gábor Elek. The two coaches stepped down in 2023 after a long-term engagement with their respective club in Hungary – Pastor with OTP Bank - Pick Szeged, Elek with FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria. “When everything clicks - and in this particular case it really clicked - then it is just normal to spend a decade here,” Pastor said.

One last hurrah for French great Nikola Karabatic

One of the all-time greats of handball is leaving the sport next year: Paris Saint-Germain star Nikola Karabatic has announced his retirement after the current season. Just before PSG headed into their 2023/24 campaign, Karabatic made his decision public. “Nostalgia will certainly come later, but right now I’d like, above all, to live this last year with you,” Karabatic said in an emotional letter published on the official PSG website. Can he add a fourth EHF Champions League title with a fourth club, after his earlier triumphs with Montpellier HC, THW Kiel, and Barça?

Season No. 20 and counting for Jovanka Radicevic

If Jovanka Radicevic was counting the number of her EHF Champions League seasons with her fingers, she would soon need a fifth hand… In September 2023, the superstar right wing entered her 20th season in Europe’s topflight, the first currently active player to hit that incredible milestone. It is said that you cannot put a price on experience. If so, it means you surely cannot put a price on Jovanka Radicevic, also one of just four players to have scored more than 1,000 goals in the competition.

Bye bye, Bertus! Servaas leaves Kielce after two decades 

It was the Match of the Week against PSG in round 3; for Kielce, it was way more than that. Bertus Servaas, the former president with heart and soul for over two decades, used the opportunity to say goodbye to the club and their many true fans. Servaas was the big man behind the scenes in Kielce, enabling the club a nearly unprecedented rise to the top of European club handball, culminating in that 2016 EHF Champions League victory.

Welcome to the club of 1,000: Cristina Neagu and Andrea Lekic

It is an elite club, only granting access to a few of the biggest superstars of the game. Andrea Lekic became only the fourth player to score 1,000 goals in the three-decade-long history of the EHF Champions League Women, joining Cristina Neagu – who entered the club earlier in 2023 – as well as Jovanka Radicevic and retired Anita Görbicz, who was the first to pass the magic mark. “A lot of work and discipline is inside of these 1,000 goals, and a lot of teamwork,” Lekic said on her fresh membership of the exclusive club.

photos © Jure Erzen & Jozo Cabraja / kolektiff