Kretzschmar: A late honour for a legend

Stefan Kretzschmar will have a double role at the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. When he confirmed his participation at the VELUX EHF Charity Golf Tournament the 40-year-old did not think that he will be on the court, too. But last week Kretzschmar was announced as the best left wing for the 'Ultimate Selection' of 20 years of the Men's EHF Champions League – and will be awarded in Cologne as the only German in this group of honour including players like Jackson Richardson, Tomas Svensson and Anrei Xepkin.

Six years after he ended his career with a farewell game, Kretzschmar will receive a lifetime award.

It was on the 27th April 2002, when the former 'handball punk' lifted high the EHF Champions League trophy. For the first time ever since the implementation of this competition no Spanish team appeared on the winners’ list. In the highly close finals SC Magdeburg beat Hungarian side Fotex Veszprem to finish on top of the podium, coached by Alfred Gislason.

To play for Magdeburg was like going back to his roots for East-Berlin-born Kretzschmar. Back to the East after he had become a star at VfL Gummersbach close to the LANXESS Arena, coached by his later national team coach Heiner Brand. Kretzschmar became national team player and quickly the German handball player of the year.

In 1996 he transferred to the 'Gladiators' at Magdeburg becoming a key to their success and playing together with another star of the ultimate selection, Olafur Stefansson. His career in the national team was imprinted by unlucky injuries though; In the semi-final of the world championship in 2003 in Portugal he broke his finger and could not help the Germans, who lost the final against Croatia – the second in a total of three silver medals of Kretzschmar after losing the final of the EHF EURO 2002 following extra-time against Sweden and the 2004 Olympic final in Athens against Croatia. In the meantime he had missed the EHF EURO 2004 due to an injury, when Germany secured their one and only European title.

Directly after the Olympics 2004 he quit playing for the national team and therefore missed becoming world champion on home ground in 2007.

After he finished his playing career by winning the EHF Men's Cup with SCM for the third time and scoring 1,694 goals in the Bundesliga, Kretzschmar became the Sports Director at Magdeburg for two years. Now he is in the management of second division team DHfK Leipzig and intermediately even became assistant coach of the team.

Since 2009 he is a TV expert and commentator for German sports channel Sport1, after he had already been the moderator for MTV during his active career.

So nowadays he is only connected to handball (and sometimes golf), but it was obvious that Kretzschmar would become a professional handball players thanks to his parents. His mother Waltraud was three-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist with GDR, coached by his father Peter, who also had been national team player for GDR.