2023 IHF World Men's Handball Championship: The race for the MVP award?
Mathias Gidsel added the World Championship MVP award to his Olympic prize, but this time he has a gold medal to go with it after Denmark completed a hat-trick of titles in Poland and Sweden.
Handball
Mathias Gidsel was named Most Valuable Player at the 2023 IHF World Men's Handball Championship in Poland and Sweden.
The right back was the top scorer in the competition with 60 goals in nine games, and helped lead Denmark to a third consecutive world title.
He is the first player in his position to take the prize, and just the second Dane after teammate Mikkel Hansen scooped the award in 2013, 2019 and 2021.
Another Dane, Simon Pytlick, made the All-Star team with Germany centre back Juri Knorr named best young player of the tournament.
Of the 14 best player awards at the men's Worlds, only Talant Dujshebaev in 1997 has come from a team which failed to reach the final.
Seven have gone to centre backs, including two apiece for Croatia's Ivano Balic and French superstar Nikola Karabatic.
Just one goalkeeper, Thierry Omeyer in 2015, has been named MVP with two pivots - Christian Schwarzer (2003) and Igor Vori (2009) - securing the gong.
2023 IHF World Men's Handball Championship MVP Contenders
Alex Dujshebaev (Spain)
The first World Championship MVP, Talant Dujshebaev, has two sons in Spain's 2023 World Championship squad.
Both Alex and Daniel play under him at Lomza Industria Kielce, with the former the undoubted star of both his national and club teams.
The pair won European titles in 2018 and 2020, something father Talant never achieved, and took bronze at the last World Championship.
Right back Alex also won bronze at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, but missed EHF EURO 2022 in order to rest his shoulder and avoid surgery.
He showed the wisdom of that decision by putting in consistently stellar performances to lead Kielce to the final of the EHF Champions League, where they suffered a heart-breaking shoot-out defeat against Barça.
Now 30, Alex can change the course of a match almost singlehandedly and could join the superstars of the sport were he to lead 'Los Hispanos' to a third world title and their first since 2013.
Mikkel Hansen (Denmark)
Already the man with most World Championship MVP awards with three, Mikkel Hansen could make it four in Poland and Sweden.
The Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist joined Aalborg last summer after a decade at Paris Saint-Germain and has shown little sign of decline despite being 35 years of age.
With 60 goals, he is Aalborg's top scorer in this season's EHF Champions League with the side neck-and-neck with GOG at the top of the Danish league.
Arguably the best left back in the history of the game, Hansen has been named IHF World Player of the Year three times - 2011, 2015, 2018 - and will be hoping to lead Denmark to a third consecutive world crown.
With his famed powerful shot, Hansen is sure to be in the goals once more this tournament. But he is not the only Dane capable of winning the award with Mathias Gidsel named MVP at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, and goalkeeper Niklas Landin the reigning two-time IHF Player of the Year.
Sander Sagosen (Norway)
Could Norway's men make their return to the podium at a major handball competition in Stockholm?
They have been beaten in the quarter-finals of the last three: going down to Spain at the 2021 World Championship, Denmark at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, and losing by one to Sweden at the 2022 European Championship when victory would have put them into the semi-finals at the expense of the eventual winners.
With an instinctive eye for goal and spotting opportunities to set up his teammates, Sander Sagosen has been one of the top players in world handball in recent years and led Norway to silver medals at the 2017 and 2019 Worlds.
While he has one EHF Champions League title to his name - with THW Kiel in the Covid-interrupted 2020 edition having started it with Paris Saint-Germain - he is perhaps lacking in big trophies compared to the likes of Hansen and Karabatic.
At 27, he still has plenty of time. And his teammates are mostly 30 or under with the notable exceptions of Aalborg star wings Kristian Bjørnsen (33) and Sebastian Barthold (31).
Sagosen broke his left ankle in June which ruled him out of the EHF Champions League Final Four, but returned to action in late November and showed his wellbeing with six goals in the Champions League win over Hansen's Aalborg last month.
For so long the nearlymen of world handball, unlike Norway's women who have swept almost all before them, this might be the year Sagosen and co put it together and claim a first major title.
Jim Gottfridsson (Sweden)
Having led Sweden to EHF EURO 2022 glory and collected the tournament MVP award - for a second time - Jim Gottfridsson will be looking to repeat the trick at this World Championship.
The powerhouse centre back, who also possesses deft touch and outstanding vision, is key to the Swedes' chances as they bid for a first world title since the 'Bengan Boys' triumphed in 1999.
They can also count on significant support with, in all probability thanks to what looks a very winnable Group C, all of their games taking place on home soil.
As well as scoring goals himself, Gottfridsson will provide the ammunition for wings Hampus Wanne and Niclas Ekberg who was the top goalscorer at London 2012 where Sweden won silver.
At the 2021 World Championship, the SG Flensburg-Handewitt star was named in the All-Star Team as Sweden were again runners-up.
The 30-year-old will be desperate to go one better here with the nation expecting the team to add to their record 12 world medals and, perhaps, win a fifth title.
Ludovic Fabregas (France)
France boast a number of MVP contenders including two-time winner Nikola Karabatic and Dika Mem.
Add Ludovic Fabregas to that list with Mem's Barça clubmate establishing himself as one of the top pivots in European handball in recent years.
He was 21 when he was part of France's squad at Rio 2016, but had limited game time with All-Star team line player Cedric Sorhaindo and Luka Karabatic for company.
Five months later, he played a key role as 'Les Experts' won the world title on home soil with five goals in the quarter-final win over Sweden and two in the final triumph against Norway.
That helped the proud Catalan secure a move from Montpellier to Barça where he would don the famous Blaugrana shirt worn by the footballers he watched at the Camp Nou with his grandfather.
Kielce's Nicolas Tournat has since replaced Sorhaindo in the France roster, and the trio rotate more than effectively.
That depth will prove invaluable in such a long and physically demanding tournament, and 26-year-old Fabregas has shown repeatedly in the EHF Champions League just how much of an asset he is in attack and defence.
Omar Ingi Magnusson (Iceland)
Iceland are certainly in the mix for a first World Championship podium appearance with their only previous major medal a silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
With goalkeeper Viktor Hallgrimson has already proven his worth, as have SG Magdeburg pair Omar Ingi Magnusson and Gisli Thorgeir Kristjansson.
The pair joined Magdeburg in 2020 - Magnusson from Aalborg, Kristjansson from THW Kiel - and have enjoyed great success with victory in the EHF European League, two IHF Super Globes, and last year's German Bundesliga.
In that time, Magnusson has been prolific with the right back equally deadly from long range and on the breakthrough.
In this season's EHF Champions League he has scored 61 times in 10 matches including 12 in his last appearance, a 37-33 win at Paris Saint-Germain.
He has even been dubbed 'the new Olafur' in reference to former team captain Olafur Stefansson who led the team to Beijing silver.
Magnusson is the reigning two-time Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year although he has some work to do to match Stefansson's tally of four.
Winning the MVP award and putting Iceland on the podium would give him a great chance of closing the gap.