Marta Zderic (CRO) - Buducnost

• playing her ninth consecutive CL season, and her second with Buducnost, after she moved from Podravka in 2013
• started as a back, but soon she moved into goal
• in Buducnost she chose number 43, the decision to use that unusual number for a goalkeeper was made by her niece Lara
• despite an early exit at the EHF EURO 2014 on home court in Varazdin she has had an impressive season in the Buducnost goal so far

Sandra Toft (DEN) - Larvik HK

• her 25th birthday on 18 October 2014 also marked her debut in the CL (against Metz Handball)
• 2014/15 is her first season outside her native country Denmark after she came from Holstebro
• became number one for Denmark when Karin Mortensen and Christina Nymand Pedersen quit the national team after the London Olympics 2012
• broke a vertebra in a car accident in 2009 and was close to being paralysed from the neck down – she was back on court within five months

Anna Sedoykina (RUS) - Dinamo-Sinara

• born and bred in Volgograd, joined Dinamo, then called Volgograd AKVA, in 2000 at the age of 16
• won 13 medals of the Russian league: seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals
• made her Russian national team debut in 2004
• one of the heroes of 2009 WCh in China. Early in the final game replaced the experienced Inna Suslina and produced a brilliant performance
• 2008 EHF Cup winner with Dinamo

Amandine Leynaud (FRA) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• playing her eighth season in the CL, six with Metz Handball and the last two with Vardar Skopje
• arrived at the Macedonian club in 2013, along with French teammates Siraba Dembele and Allison Pineau
• currently the number one French goalkeeper
• main strength is on 6m line shots
• likes to score goals, but did not manage it this season in the Champions League despite hitting the post three times
 

Katja Schülke (GER) - HC Leipzig

• returned from maternity leave in the 2014/15 season – she gave birth to her first son in January 2014
• her biggest international success was reaching the 2009 EHF Cup final with HCL
• reached the milestone of 100 international matches for Germany in 2014
• team captain together with Karolina Kudlacz
• on her way to becoming a sports teacher

Tamara Mavsar (SLO) - RK Krim Mercator

• born and bred in Ljubljana
• made her CL debut at age 17
• in 2012/13 season she was nominated as one of the best up-and-coming players in the CL
• most experienced player for Krim by far and penalty taker for the team

Paule Baudouin (FRA) - Metz Handball

• since 1999 played all across France, from Le Havre to Mios Biganos to Issy Paris
• played for Esjberg, Denmark between 2008 and 2010
• along with Nina Kanto, she is the player with the most important international experience in the team
• voted best left wing in the French league in the 2013/14 season.

Siraba Dembele (FRA) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• French left wing signed with Vardar ahead of last season and played an important role in the team in 2013/14, scoring 35 goals and also this season netting in 38 before quarter-finals
• Vardar is the seventh team in her career – she previously played for five different French teams and spent one season with Danish club Randers
• captain of the France national team
• extended her contract with Vardar until 2016

Valentina Ardean (ROU) - HCM Baia Mare

• one of the most experienced players in Baia Mare’s roster
• Deadly fast on the counterattacks, she has also the technical knowledge to be effective from the wing
• started as a left back, but since Tone Tisej took over she is getting more game time on the wing.
• signed with Baia Mare only two weeks after having her baby Robert in January 2013
• scored 39 goals in her seventh Women’s EHF Champions League season and was the team’s top scorer in three matches

Maria Fisker (DEN) - Viborg HK A/S

• known for her speed and has a scoring percentage well above 80%
• started playing handball when she was five
• joined Viborg in 2006 from third division club Vissing Hadsten
• transferred to Randers HK in 2009, returned to Viborg in 2011
• voted in the Women's EHF EURO 2014 All-Star team

Cristina Neagu (ROU) - Buducnost

• named the World Handball Player of the Year after leading Romania to bronze at the Women's EHF EURO 2010
• voted in the Women's EHF EURO 2014 All-Star team
• missed nearly two of the last four years, after a shoulder injury and a torn ligament in her knee
• two-time EHF Champions League finalist, once with Oltchim (2013) and once with Buducnost (2014)

Nadja Nadgornaja (GER) - Thüringer HC

• born in Minsk, her father is Ukrainian and her mother Belarusian
• swimmer before she started playing handball
• awarded best player of the German Bundesliga in the 2012/13 season
• clear top scorer for Thüringer in Europe this season with 72 goals before quarter-finals

Andrea Penezic (CRO) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• in the summer of 2014 signed a 1+1 year contract
• raised the Slovenian title and cup four times with Krim before joining Vardar
• best left back in the All-Star Team at the WCh 2011
• played also for Lokomotiva and Podravka
• Croatian player of the year six consecutive times

Alina Wojtas (POL) - Larvik HK

• comes from Nowy Sacz, a city in southern-eastern Poland
• joined the best Polish team - SPR Lublin (now MKS Selgros) in January 2009 
• played her first game in senior national team in May 2008 against Kazakhstan 
• youngest member on the official list of 20 legends of the MKS Selgros Lublin team 
• joined Larvik in summer 2014 and became one of the massive weapons thanks to her long-rage shooting ability

Olga Akopian (RUS) - Dinamo-Sinara

• has been playing for Dinamo throughout her career
• after the London Olympics in 2012, married Eduard Akopian, the team manager of Dinamo, gave birth to the daughter Arina in May 2013
• at the beginning of 2014 successfully came back to handball
• needs just five goals in the quarter-finals to beat her previous best scoring season in the competition of 65 in 2009/10

Karolina Kudlacz (POL) - HC Leipzig

• nine seasons already with Leipzig, despite offers from top international clubs
• team captain at HCL and for the Poland national team
• also works as a psychologist in Leipzig
• together with Schülke, the last remaining member of the HCL teams that won the German
championship in 2010 and 2011
• led Poland to the WCh 2013 semi-final

Ida Oden (SWE) - IK Sävehof

• one of the most versatile female handball players, not only in Sävehof, but in Swedish handball in general
• although her basic position is the right back, she also functions very well as a centre and left back
• international debut for Sweden in 2012
• came to Sävehof in 2004 from Borås HK
• works at an IT company

Isabelle Gulldén (SWE) - Viborg HK

• fast, flexible and creative playmaker and a reliable penalty shooter
• started playing at the age of seven for IK Sävehof
• won the Swedish championship four times in succession with Sävehof (2007 to 2011)
• joined Viborg in 2011 – not only her first foreign adventure, but her first club other than Sävehof
• MVP and top scorer of the EHF EURO 2014 in Hungary & Croatia

Aniko Kovacsics (HUN) - Györi Audi ETO KC

• the playmaker has been propelled into the starting seven due to the pregnancy of Anita Görbicz
• the 23-year-old made her CL debut at 16 and is already in her eighth season
• also able to play left wing and was deployed in that position by Hungary during EHF EURO 2014
• awarded best young player of the 2012/13 CL
season

Andrea Lekic (SRB) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• competed in karate and reached blue belt before moving on to ball sports including volleyball, basketball, football and tennis
• voted the 2013 World Handball Player of the Year
• All-star team at the EHF EURO 2012
• organises her own handball camp every other year

Heidi Loke (NOR) - Györi Audi ETO KC

• World Handball Player of Year (2011)
• famous daughter in a big handball family as both of her siblings are professional players and all siblings are line players
• in 2011 she took the title with Larvik as the CL top scorer, and in 2012 she only narrowly missed it with Győr only to achieve it one year later
• member of the All-star teams at the London Olympics, 2011 WCh and EHF EURO 2010, 2012 & 2014

Luisa Schulze (GER) - HC Leipzig

• playing for HC Leipzig since she was 16 years old
• tallest in the HCL squad at 1,91 metres
• member of the German national team since four years and had her debut at the age of 21
• has turned from a defence specialist into a strong attacker at the line in the current season, scoring 42 goals so far
• unusually for a line player - the penalty expert at Leipzig and the national team

Danick Snelder (NED) - Thüringer HC

• part of the Dutch national team
• new number one line player at THC after Anja Althaus transferred to Vardar
• All-Star Team at the U19 EHF EURO 2009 in Hungary
• four German championship titles with THC
• best Dutch line player in the 2009/10 season, when playing for Hellas in Den Haag

Dragana Cvijic (SRB) - Buducnost

• started handball at the age of 10, first as goalkeeper, but being very tall for her age, Dragana’s first coach put her at left back
• in 2007 at Crvena Zvezda she moved to the line
• joined Buducnost in 2011 just in time to help them on the way to the CL title
• Serbian national team player voted the best line player of the WCh 2013

Nina Kamto (FRA) - Metz Handball

• born in Cameroon, arrived in France when she was a child
• played in Metz for her whole career
• shares line player duties with Yvette Broch
• scored her personal record of 30 goals in this season
• played over 200 times with the french national team and has scored nearly 400 goals
 

Ana Gros (SLO) - Metz Handball

• despite being only 23 became a CL regular in Metz
• played in Germany (Thüringer HC), Hungary (Györ) and also in Slovenia with Krim and Olimpija
• came to Metz in January 2014 and immediately showed her potential by scoring nine goals in her first match
• has become a key player in Jeremy Roussel’s squad, scoring 73 goals in Europe this season

Anna Kochetova (RUS) - Dinamo-Sinara

• her mother used to be a handball player and then a coach and brought Anna to handball training when the girl was 7
• plays at the same position and with the same number 6 as her mother did
• missed the 2012/13 season and for half a year, travelled extensively all over the world with her husband
• eventually came back to Dinamo and has made a huge impact with 76 goals in the competition so far

Nora Mørk (NOR) - Larvik HK

• best scorer of the Norwegian team at the EHF EURO 2014 (41 goals)
• voted the best right back of the EHF EURO 2014
• can also play on the right wing, her twin sister and teammate Thea plays on the left wing
• joined Larvik in the 2009/10 season and debuted in the national team in 2010 as 19-year-old

Katarina Bulatovic (MNE) - Buducnost

• Serbia-born shooter arrived to Buducnost in 2014 after one-year stints with Oltchim and Györ
• made it to the CL final for the first time in 2007 with Slagelse
• won the CL title with three different clubs - Slagelse, Buducnost and Györ
• voted at right back in last season's All-Star team

Susann Müller (GER) - Györi Audi ETO KC

• after a spell in Krim she returned back to her handball roots to Leipzig for the 2013/14 season
• also played in Denmark for Aarhus and Randers
• big shoes to fill in Györ as the right back position was void after Katarina Bulatovic left
• top scorer (62 goals) and All-star team right back at the WCh 2013

Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth Koren (NOR) - Larvik HK

• one of the most decorated players in the handball history
• World Handball Player of the Year (2008)
• All-Star Team member at EHF EURO 2008 and WCh 2009
• EHF EURO 2008 topscorer (51 goals)
• scored over 900 goals for Norway’s national team
• married to Norwegian international Einar Koren.

Katrin Engel (AUT) - Thüringer HC

• started her career at Hypo Niederösterreich and had her first appearance in the women’s team at the age of 16
• has won already ten national championships – five with Hypo in Austria, one with Nürnberg in Germany and four consecutive (2011-2014) with THC in Germany
• was top scorer of the 2009 World Championship in China
• scored 785 goals in 195 matches for the Austrian national team so far

Alexandra Do Nascimento (BRA) - HCM Baia Mare

• after 11 seasons played for Hypo Niederösterreich took a new challenge and accepted Baia Mare’s offer
• with 501 goals scored over 12 seasons one of the top scorers of the CL history
• her husband, the Chilean right wing Patricio Martinez, followed her to Baia Mare and plays for the men’s team
• despite injury worries, do Nascimento missed only one game this season and is Baia Mare second top scorer with 41 goals

Radmila Petrovic (MNE) - Buducnost

• started training handball at 12, in her home town of Nikšić, where she played for five years as a right back
• when transferred to Buducnost in 2005, she was moved to the wing
• strong alternative to Jovanka Radicevic in Montenegro national team
• in 2014 she won her 100th cap with Montenegro

Jovanka Radicevic (MNE) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• voted at right wing in last season's All-star team
• best right wing at the EHF EURO 2012 when she won the championship with Montenegro
• in 2013 she won the CL title with Györ
• with Buducnost, she won seven championships and cup titles in Montenegro (2005-2011), two regional league titles (2010, 2011) and two titles in the Cup Winners’ Cup (2006, 2010)

Rikke Skov (DEN) - Viborg HK A/S

• has played in Viborg since she was 14
• has been part of all Viborg's three CL triumphs – in 2006, 2009 and 2010
• was mainly seen as a defender this season, but many injuries in the team have given her a lot of time in the attack also
• played 130 internationals for Denmark before ending her national team career after the London Olympics in 2012
• educated nurse and working as such beside playing handball

Anja Althaus (GER) - WHC Vardar SCBT

• first German player to play in FYR Macedonia
• switched from being a designer in advertising to a hairdresser, and is known as stylist to her teammates in both her club and national team
• two EHF Champions League titles with Viborg (2009, 2010)
• one of the most famous German players with over 200 caps for Germany and more than 500 goals

Marit Malm Frafjord (NOR) - Larvik HK

• used to play for Larvik's rivals Byasen, but joined Larvik in 2014 after a three year long foreign adventure by Viborg HK
• crucial in the centre of defence as well in the attack, to Larvik and the Norwegian national team
• has played 172 internationals for Norway and scored 352 goals
• an Achilles tendon injury kept her out of the last part of last season, and the first half of this one, but since new year, she has been back at full strength

Gabriella Szücs (HUN) - HCM Baia Mare

• born in Transylvania but started her handball career in Debrecen, Hungary at the age of 11
• HCM Baia Mare is the third Romanian team Szűcs played for having served time with Oltchim Valcea and HC Zalau
• won the silver medal at the W19 European championship in 2002 and the Junior World Championship in 2003
• achievements: CL finalist, EHF Cup finalist, World Championship bronze medallist, EURO bronze medallist, three times Romanian champion

Dorina Korsos (HUN) - Györi Audi ETO KC

• was only seventeen years old when she made her debut in the CL
• despite her young age a key player for Ambros Martin playing on the top of the 5+1 defence
• just turned 20 in March 2015 but she is already a two-time CL winner and has two gold medals from the Hungarian Cup and championship
• with the absence of Anita Görbicz, Kovacsics plays more in the middle and gives Korsos more time to prove herself on the wing

Daria Dmitrieva (RUS) - Dinamo-Sinara

• started her career in the Togliattian handball school and moved at the age of 14 in Volgograd
• at only 18 she played for all three categories of the Russian national team: youth, junior and senior
• gold medalist from the W17 EHF EURO 2011 and W19 EHF EURO 2013
• silver medal from the World U20 Championship 2014 where she was voted as best playmaker
• at the age of 19 has become one of the leading players at Dinamo and enters the quarter-finals with 57 goals

Eliza Iulia Buceschi (ROU) - HCM Baia Mare

• despite her young age, 21, she has already been selected many times for the Romania national team
• her father Costica was Baia Mare’s coach until January 2015
• on the 31st of January 2011, the Buceschi family made history in the Romanian League for Baia Mare as Carmen and Eliza – mother and daughter – played on the same time, while Costica was coaching
• top scorer for the club in Europe this season with 43 goals so far

Elizabeth Omoregie (BUL) - RK Krim Mercator

• born in Athens, her father is Nigerian and her mother Bulgarian
• comes from a sporting family: her father was a professional football player, while her mother was a handball goalkeeper
• played for three Bulgarian clubs before she signed a three-year contract with Krim this season
• in her debut CL season she scored 34 goals
• plays for the Bulgarian national team

Louise Sand (SWE) - Ik Sävehof

• Louise has been crazy about playing ball all her life and for her confirmation she only wanted a ball as present
• with her 160 cm she is not among the tallest on a court, but she more than compensates for that through her outstanding technique
• joined Sävehof in 2009 after spells with Kärra and Önnereds
• Sweden national team member since 2012

Lois Abbingh (NED) - HCM Baia Mare

• played four years at German side VfL Oldenburg (2010-2014) before she transferred to Baia Mare last summer
• made her comeback on the court after an eight-month injury break in January – and scored 21 goals in the six main round matches
• top scorer and member of the All-star team at the 2010 U18 World Championship and top scorer of the 2011 U19 EHF EURO
• top scorer of the Dutch league in the 2009/10 season at the age of only 18

Ambros Martin (ESP) - Györi ETO KC

• born in Lanzarote, Canary Islands
• joined Győr in 2012
• previously coached top Spanish side Estrella Itxako for seven years, winning the EHF Cup in 2009
• also eliminating Györ in the semi-final on the way to the CL final in 2010/11 during that spell
• in his first season with Győr he won their first European trophy

Ole Gustav Gjekstad (NOR) - Larvik HK

• former Norwegian international (149 caps) quit his playing career in 1996
• became coach of Larvik for the first time in 1998
• after seven years on the bench he became sports director of the club and later-on coach of Norwegian men’s club team Drammen HK
• in 2011, after Larvik had become CL winners returned to their bench and only narrowly missed the trophy after their defeat by Györ in 2012/13

Dragan Adzic (MNE) - Buducnost

• retired due to injury in 1998
• almost a decade was an assistant to many coaches in Buducnost
• became head coach in 2010
• in 2012 won the CL in May with Buducnost and EHF EURO in December with Montenegro
• met his wife Timea after she came to the club as an interpreter to former coach, Hungarian Gyula Zsiga

Victor Ryabykh (RUS) - Dinamo-Sinara

• has been at the helm of Dinamo since 2008 winning six Russian championships in a row
• worked at other Russian clubs as well as in Ukraine and Montenegro
• asked to become Russia national team coach but preferred to stay at Dinamo when forced to choose just one job
• coordinator of the Volgograd youth academy, which is the source for many national team players

Tiselj Tone (SLO) - HCM Baia Mare

• the most decorated Slovenian strategist
• won two consecutive CL trophies with Krim and reached the EHF EURO final with men’s national team on home court in 2004
• successes has earned him the moniker 'Napoleon'
• draws inspiration from different sporting legends
• replaced Costica Buceschi at the helm of Baia Mare in January 2015