Aguinagalde, Dujshebaev and Veszprém Arena top the coaches’ ranking

Like for the first time one year ago, all the coaches of the VELUX EHF Champions League were asked to name their personal dream team, their top coaches and their favourite arena in terms of atmosphere. And nearly all coaches took part in this ranking.

They could choose their top player for each position (except players of their own squad), name their three best coaches and the best arena.

In the coach and arena ranking, last season’s winners defended their trophy: Talant Dujshebaev, who steered Vive Tauron Kielce to their sensational Champions League trophy in May, was again awarded “best coach” by his colleagues, while the Veszprém arena was voted best arena.

After Nikola Karabatic had collected the biggest number of votes for an individual player in 2015, now it is another current Champions League winner: Julen Aguinagalde with 17 votes as best line player right ahead of Laszlo Nagy (Veszprém) with 15 votes as best right back.

Three more players received ten or more votes and all wear the jersey of Paris Saint-Germain: Mikkel Hansen (12) was awarded best left back, Nikola Karabatic (11) best centre back and new arrival Uwe Gensheimer (10) best left wing. And in a close race Luc Abalo was awarded best right wing, PSG are part of the “Coaches’ Dream Team” with four of their stars making the cut.

The closest of all decisions was the one between the posts: but Kiel’s goalkeeper Niklas Landin finished first with seven votes, ahead of Arpad Sterbik (Vardar/6) and Thierry Omeyer (PSG/4).

By looking upon last season’s dream team, five of seven players defended their titles: Gensheimer, Hansen, Karabatic, Nagy and Aguinagalde.

The coaches’ votes by position - top 3:

Goalkeeper:

Niklas Landin (Kiel) 7
Arpad Sterbik (Vardar) 6
Thierry Omeyer (PSG) 4

Left wing:

Uwe Gensheimer (PSG) 10
Christian Ugalde (Veszprém) 4
Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson (Löwen) 3
Timur Dibirov (Vardar) 3

Left back:

Mikkel Hansen (PSG) 12
Momir Ilic (Veszprem) 6
Domagoj Duvnjak (Kiel) 4

Centre back:

Nikola Karabatic (PSG) 11
Uros Zorman (Kielce) 5
Aron Palmarsson (Veszprém) 4

Right back:

Laszlo Nagy (Veszprém) 15
Luka Stepancic (PSG) 2
Kiril Lazarov (Barcelona) 2
Holger Glandorf (Flensburg) 2

Right wing:

Luc Abalo (PSG) 7
Victor Tomas (Barcelona) 4
Tobias Reichmann (Kielce) 4
Blaz Janc (Celje) 3
Lasse Svan Hansen (Flensburg) 3

Line player:

Julen Aguinagalde (Kielce) 17
Cedric Sorhaindo (Barcelona) 2
Rene Toft Hansen (Kiel) 2

Coaches:

By judging their colleagues, the coaches of the VELUX EHF Champions League nominated a wide range of in total 17 names.

Like in 2015, Dujshebaev is the leader, ahead of Ljubomir Vranjes (Flensburg) and the trio Gonzales, Gislason and Vujovic.

Talant Dujshebaev (Kielce) 13
Ljubomir Vranjes (Flensburg) 9
Raul Gonzalez (Vardar) 6
Alfred Gislason (Kiel) 6
Veselin Vujovic (Zagreb) 6
Javier Sabate (Veszprem) 4
Xavi Pascual (Barcelona) 4
Juan Carlos Pastor (Szeged) 4

Arenas:

Ten different arenas were mentioned by the coaches and again the Veszprém Arena was on top. The fortress of the 2016 VELUX EHF Champions League finalists was ahead of Kiel, Skopje and Kielce. Funnily enough, the VELUX EHF FINAL4 arena in Cologne - home only to the final tournament - made it into the top 5.

Veszprém Arena (Veszprém) 10
Sparkassenarena (Kiel) 6
Jane Sandanski Arena (Skopje) 5
Hala MOSIR (Kielce) 4
LANXESS Arena (Cologne) 3