Two half-times in the players' sanctuary

Before the serious business starts on Saturday at the VELUX EHF FINAL4 the new 'Locker room show' with four players and ehfTV commentator on Friday evening provided a light-hearted insight in a relaxed atmosphere.  

In the first “half” two stars from the first semi-final pairing, Dominik Klein from HBC Nantes and Jesper Nielsen from Paris Saint-Germain starred and Tom Ó Brannagáin will apparently have to watch out that – according to his personal wishes for the coming years – the future TV expert Dominik Klein will not steal him the show. After they setlled down on the language to use (English, French or even German?), the witty chat started with the three recalling and talking about anecdotes of the past seasons.

Whether it was about Blacky (Christian) Schwarzer, who reads a newspaper about the NBA from 1982 before each game or about Klein’s former teammate Filip Jicha. When it comes to Jicha the three of them could still sit there in an hour and talk about rituals.

Although Bavarian Dominik Klein has his personal “Oktoberfest”-song after every victory at his new home HBC Nantes, Tom could not persuade him to continue his career after this season. The hashtag #onemoreyear obviously will not be activated this weekend.

In the second part there was a little "war of words" between Vincent Gerard from Montpellier HB and Stojanche Stoilov from HC Vardar.

The same – different – family planning, if “dog or child”, was concluded fastly. At least when it comes to Gerard’s wife. Both ways are namely not possible. Stoilov, according to his own statement part of the heaviest team in the tournament, even touched the trophy which was, of course, with them in the locker room. Vardar captain paid no respect to an unwritten rule of all sportsmen and only next two days will show whether he will be punished for that...

Talking about the individual preparation before every match in the locker room both players quickly agreed that they do not have any special rituals. Stoilov himself is a very fast at preparing – change, getting ready and out. “I don’t have any idea why it takes so long to my teammates. But in case they fix their hair, I’ll kill them one day,” he was kidding.