Karabatic and Gille can make history together

Sweden still dominate the records of multiple Men’s EHF EURO winners, although the ‘Three Crowns’ won their last trophy almost 20 years ago. A total of five Swedish players featured in all four of the teams to win gold in 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2002. Sweden are also still the first, last and only team to become European champions on home ground – in 2002.

A total of seven different coaches have steered their teams to EHF EURO glory, and again a Swede is on top of the table: Bengt Johansson, who gave his name to the ‘Bengan Boys’, is four-time champion.

In the 2022 tournament another Frenchman could make a different kind of history: Guillaume Gille, who was twice European champion on court, has the chance of becoming the first to take gold as a coach too.

Ljubomir Vranjes has the same goal. He was three times a winner as a player with Sweden and now hopes for gold as Slovenia’s coach, after steering the team to the EHF EURO 2020 semi-finals. To date, only one coach has ever won the EHF EURO for a team that is not his home country: Icelander Dagur Sigurdsson in 2016 with Germany.

All multiple Men’s EHF EURO winners (bold = participating in 2022)

4 EHF EURO trophies:
Ola Lindgren, Staffan Olsson, Stefan Lövgren, Magnus Wislander, Martin Frandesjö (all Sweden/all 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002)

3 EHF EURO trophies:
Thierry Omeyer, Nikola Karabatic, Michael Guigou, Jerome Fernandez, Daniel Narcisse (all France/all 2006, 2010, 2014)

Pierre Thorsson, Robert Andersson, Robert Hedin (all Sweden/all 1994, 1998, 2000)

Peter Gentzel, Ljubomir Vranjes, Johan Pettersson, Martin Boquist, Thomas Sivertsson, Andreas Larsson (all Sweden/all 1998, 2000, 2002)

2 EHF EURO trophies:
Kasper Nielsen, Hans Lindberg, Bo Spellerberg, Lars Christiansen, Kasper Söndergaard (all Denmark/all 2008, 2012)

Tomas Svensson, Magnus Andersson (both Sweden/1994, 2002)

Jan Stankiewicz, Andreas Lundquist, Henrik Andersson, Marcus Wallgren (all Sweden/1998, 2000)

Bertrand Gille, Guillaume Gille, Didier Dinart, Dauda Karaboue, Sebastian Bosquet (all France/2006, 2010)

Cedric Sorhaindo, Guillaume Joli (both France/2010, 2014)

Gonzalo Perez de Vargas, Rodrigo Corralles, Angel Fernandez, Raul Entrerrios, Alex Dujshebaev, Dani Dujshebaev, Daniel Sarmiento, Julen Aguinagalde, Ferran Sole, Adria Figueras, Joan, Canellas, Viran Morros, Gedeon Guardiola (all Spain, all 2018 and 2020)

Head coaches of the EHF EURO champions:
4 trophies: Bengt Johansson (Sweden) - Sweden 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002
4 trophies: Ulrik Wilbek (Denmark) - women 1994, 1996; men 2008, 2012
3 trophies: Claude Onesta (France) - France 2006, 2010, 2014
2 trophies: Jordi Ribera (Spain) - Spain 2018, 2020
1 trophy: Vladimir Maximov (Russia) - Russia 1996
1 trophy: Heiner Brand (Germany) - Germany 2004
1 trophy: Dagur Sigurdsson (Iceland) - Germany 2016