A big ‘farväl’ for Marcus Ahlm

513 matches in ten years and the incredible number of 25 titles, including three EHF Champions League trophies: These are the impressive records of Marcus Ahlm’s career at German powerhouse THW Kiel.

On Friday (16 August) the Swedish line player, who had been the team’s captain since the career end of Stefan Lövgren in 2009, will have his farewell match in Kiel.

Following the test match of Kiel against Danish champions and VELUX EHF Champions League participants Aalborg Handbold (18:30 hrs. local time), Ahlm’s ‘THW All-Stars’ will face the current team of the three times EHF Champions League winner at 20:15 hrs.

And the names of those, who come to the Sparkasse Arena to say “Farväl Marcus”, are like the ‘who’s who’ of international handball and THW Kiel legends.

Overall the 16 selected players have won more than 200 national and international titles just with the THW as the team includes World Handball Player of the Century, Magnus Wislander, World Handball Players of the Year such as Nikola Karabatic, Olympic, world and European champions and a huge number of VELUX EHF Champions League champions, including the competition’s former ambassador Stefan Lövgren.

A sold-out arena to cheer on the All-Stars

The team will be coached by former THW coach Noka Serdarusic, who brought Marcus Ahlm to Kiel in 2003, and current Swedish national team coach Staffan Olsson, who will also show his skills on the court.

Unfortunately Thierry Omeyer and Vid Kavticnik had to cancel their participation, as they are preparing with MAHB Montpellier for the wild card qualification matches of the VELUX EHF Champions League against Polish side Wisla Plock.

Karabatic is supposed to arrive from his new club FC Barcelona right before the start and will return again on Saturday morning. “But I do everything to be part of this team”, the French Olympic, world and European champion said.

“I am really happy and proud that all these world class players will join this team – and I am really pleased that my wish was fulfilled to have Noka Serdarusic coaching this team,” Ahlm was quoted on the THW Kiel website.

The Sparkassen-Arena is already sold-out with 10,250 spectators for the farewell match and the THW match against Aalborg, which are streamed live and free of charge on www.ndr.de from 18:30 hrs. local time on.

The match against Aalborg is also the first home match for the THW newcomers Wael Jallouz, Rasmus Lauge and Johan Sjöstrand.

The “Farväl, Marcus”-All-Star-Team:

Goalkeeper: Peter Gentzel (Sweden), Henning Fritz  (Germany)
Line player:  Magnus Wislander, Pelle Linders (both Sweden), Klaus-Dieter Petersen (Germany), Marcus Ahlm (Sweden), Daniel Kubes (Czech Republic)
Left back: Demetrio Lozano (Spain), Frode Hagen (Norway), Piotr Przybecki (Poland)
Centre back: Stefan Lövgren (Sweden), Nikola Karabatic (France), Börge Lund (Norway), Viktor Szilagyi (Austria)
Right back: Kim Andersson (Sweden), Roman Pungartnik (Slovenia), Staffan Olsson (Sweden)
Left wing: Henrik Lundström (Sweden), Adrian Wagner (Germany), Nikolaj Jacobsen (Denmark)
Right wing: Johan Petersson (Sweden), Tobias Reichmann (Germany)
Coaches: Noka Serdarusic, Staffan Olsson