Gottfridsson: “Playing the EURO at home will be so great”

Despite being within touching distance of a second consecutive German championship with SG Flensburg-Handewitt, Jim Gottfridsson can briefly shift his mind and look forward to EHF EURO 2020, which will take place in Austria, Norway and Sweden next January in just over 200 days.

“Playing a European championship at home is something that usually happens once in a handball player’s career, and maybe not even that.

“Therefore, playing at home next year is obviously something I am looking very much forward to and I really do hope to stay free of injury so that I can be part of the event.

“I remember from the World Championship this January in Denmark, when we played our preliminary matches in Copenhagen, how the Royal Arena was crowded with Swedish fans in blue and yellow.

“That support meant a lot to us, and one can only try to imagine what it will be like to play in the Scandinavium in Gothenburg with 11-12,000 supporting us in the same way,” says the 26-year-old centre back, who is playing his sixth season with Flensburg, whom he joined from Ystads IF, his southern Swedish hometown club.

An honour to be captain

On top of looking forward to playing the EHF EURO 2020 at home, he can also look forward to leading the Swedish team as captain, a role he was recently handed.

“Becoming captain is an honour for me and it shows me that people value what I am doing and that they have faith in me.

“It is also a big responsibility, of course, but then again, I do not feel that responsibility weighs too heavily as we are a group of experienced players who share responsibility and a I can lean on players like Mikael Appelgren and Max Darj in that respect,” explains Jim Gottfridsson.

Defending the silver medal

At the last EHF EURO in Croatia in 2018, Sweden won the silver medal and, naturally, Gottfridsson hopes and expects his team to play an important part in the business end of the competition next year.

“Of course, we want to play for the medals and for the title, but we also realise that little things often decide the matter.

“At the World Championship in Denmark this year we had to realise how a bad day against Norway cost us the semi-final berth.

“There are so many good teams these days and the difference is so small that the in-form team on the day is successful. I only hope it will be our day when the time comes next year,” says Jim Gottfridsson.

As one of the hosts, Sweden are exempt from taking part in the ongoing qualifiers.

Instead, they are taking part in the EHF EURO Cup 2020 together with the other hosting nations Austria and Norway as well as defending European champions Spain.

In the Cup's final two rounds, Sweden play at Spain on 12 June and then at home against Austria on 16 June.

“The fact that we do not have to play qualification matches give us the chance to test quite a lot of players and in this respect, the EHF EURO Cup comes in useful.

“Many players have been tested over the past months and that gives us a lot of options,” finds the captain, who does not have any particular preferences or fears in terms of possible opponents ahead of the draw on 28. June.

“If you want to win the championship, you have to be able to beat them all, and I would not say that I fear any team in advance, nor do I wish for any opponents in particular. We will just take them as they come,” concludes Gottfridsson.