Internationella handbollsförbundet har nominerat fem spelare till att bli IHF World Handball Player på herrsidan för 2016.
IHF har plockat ut de fem spelare de anser gjorde bäst insatser under 2016. Noterbart är att de tre senaste årens utvalda har chansen igen i form av Duvnjak (2013), Karabatic (2014) och Hansen (2015).
Sander Sagosen är bara 21 år och kan bli den yngsta vinnaren genom tiderna. Tidigare har Ivano Balic och Mikkel Hansen vunnit som 24-åringar.
Nikola Karabatic
The 32-year-old centre back is one of the star players of the French team and has won the Player of the Year award twice already (in 2007 and 2014). With the French team Karabatic ranked fifth at the EHF EURO 2016 and claimed the silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, where he was also voted into the All-star Team. With Paris Saint-Germain, his current club, he won the French Championship, came in third at the EHF Champions League Final4 and finished second at the IHF Super Globe 2016.
Mikkel Hansen
2011 and 2015 Player of the Year Mikkel Hansen, can look back at a successful year 2016. After a rocky start, when the Danes lost their 5/6th placement match at the EHF EURO 2016 against France, the team around Hansen got their revenge at Rio 2016 where they beat France in the final to claim the gold medal. The 29-year-old left back was not only part of the Rio 2016 All-star team but was also voted Most Valuable Player of the tournament. With his PSG teammate Nikola Karabatic, he had many reasons to celebrate in addition to becoming top scorer in the EHF Champions League season 2015/2016.
Andreas Wolff
Germany’s 25-year-old goalkeeper Andreas Wolff rose at the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland, where he was not only voted into the All-star team but could also claim the gold medal with Germany. The surprise victory qualified the ‘Bad Boys’ for the 2016 Olympics where they continued their successful year claiming the bronze medal. In 2016, Wolff joined German record champions THW Kiel.
Domagoj Duvnjak
Croatia’s centre back Domagoj Duvnjak appears regularly among the Player of the Year nominees and even won the award in 2013. 2016 started off with Croatia winning the bronze medal at the EHF EURO. They qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where the 28-year-old showed his skills coming in first in the assist’s ranking and sixth in the combination goals/assists.
Sander Sagosen
21-year-old Sander Sagosen is probably one of Europe’s biggest handball talents at the moment. With Norway he achieved the best result of the men’s team at a European championship when they came in fourth in 2016. With his performance at the EHF EURO 2016, where he was also voted into the All-star Team, he made many clubs sit up and notice, amongst others Paris Saint-Germain Handball. He signed with the French powerhouse in 2016 and joins them the next season.
Här har ni hela vinnarlistan på herrsidan:
1988: Veselin Vujović, Jugoslavien
1989: Kang Jae-Won, Sydkorea
1990: Magnus Wislander, Sverige
1991: Inget pris
1992: Inget pris
1993: Inget pris
1994: Talant Dujshebaev, Ryssland
1995: Jackson Richardson, Frankrike
1996: Talant Dujshebaev, Spanien
1997: Stéphane Stoecklin, Frankrike
1998: Daniel Stephan, Tyskland
1999: Rafael Guijosa, Spanien
2000: Dragan Škrbić, Jugoslavien
2001: Yoon Kyung-Shin, Sydkorea
2002: Bertrand Gille, Frankrike
2003: Ivano Balić, Kroatien
2004: Henning Fritz, Tyskland
2005: Arpad Šterbik, Serbien och Montenegro
2006: Ivano Balić, Kroatien
2007: Nikola Karabatić, Frankrike
2008: Thierry Omeyer, Frankrike
2009: Sławomir Szmal, Polen
2010: Filip Jicha, Tjeckien
2011: Mikkel Hansen, Danmark
2012: Daniel Narcisse, Frankrike
2013: Domagoj Duvnjak, Kroatien
2014: Nikola Karabatić, Frankrike
2015: Mikkel Hansen, Danmark