02.09.2019, 11:20
Top five teams boasting the most experience

FIRST-HAND INSIGHT: With the start of the VELUX EHF Champions League approaching fast, let’s have a detailed look at some key characteristics. Today: the teams who bring the most experience to the court

Top five teams boasting the most experience

The VELUX EHF Champions League is the benchmark in European club handball. Apart from all qualities and assets the teams need to have, experience will always be a key factor for success.

Here are the five teams who lead the pack in terms of experience:

5. HC Vardar

Can you do better than winning the VELUX EHF Champions League twice over the last three seasons? Hardly. The team had to be rebuilt again this summer, after coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo and key players like VELUX EHF FINAL4 MVP Igor Karacic and goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev left. But that doesn’t seem to scare anybody in Skopje. They have overcome a similar exodus before, without altering the club’s momentum. They know how to win the title.

4. PGE VIVE Kielce

You can never rule out Kielce. A squad full of young players, but in the meantime able to perform as seasoned players in the most important times of the season. To give the team some more experience in the crucial moments of the games, coach Talant Dujshebaev will be able to count on VELUX EHF FINAL MVP Igor Karacic. What the former Vardar player has been through in the last seasons will make up for the loss of Luka Cindric.

3. Barça

Aron Palmarsson, Raul Entrerrios, Victor Tomas, Cedric Sorhaindo: hard to tell who is the most experienced player of the Barça squad. And even the players aged below 30 have had their responsibilities for seasons now. Be it Aleix Gomez, Luka Cindric or Ludovic Fabregas, it feels like they have been playing handball at the highest level forever. In their rebuilding process, Barça are definitely not lacking experience.

2. Telekom Veszprém HC

You can tell the level of experience in a team by looking at the profile of its recruits. And in Veszprém, the names say it all: former EHF Champions League winners Vuko Borozan and Rogerio Moraes, Danish centre back Rasmus Lauge Schmidt and Vladimir Cupara, Kielce’s hero from last season. An impressive list, which adds to Veszprem stalwarts such as Petar Nenadic, Dragan Gajic or Manuel Strlek. They will cope with the retirement of Laszlo Nagy.

1. Paris Saint-Germain HB

PSG will be one of the most aged teams in the VELUX EHF Champions Leagueu 2019/20. And with newcomers like 40-year-old Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson, the amount of collective experience only gets another boost. Five of their players have won the EHF Champions League in their careers, and those who haven’t yet, played for Barça, Ciudad Real or Flensburg in the past. No wonder Paris rank among the prime contenders for the VELUX EHF FINAL4.

TEXT: Kevin Domas / ew