Top scorer Johanna Reichert: “This is a reward for the whole team”

For the second consecutive season, Reichert has finished as the competition's top scorer. After netting a record-breaking 110 goals during the 2024/25 season, the Austrian left back raised the bar once again at the EHF Finals Dijon métropole 2026, surpassing her own mark to set a new single-season scoring record in the EHF European League Women with 111 goals. Reichert also remains the only player since the inaugural 2020/21 season to break the 100-goal barrier in a single campaign.

Those numbers came after another outstanding European season. She netted 10 or more goals in seven out of nine matches in the group phase and quarter-finals, with her highest tally being 16 goals against Motherson Mosonmagyaróvári KC.

But when asked about her performance, she stays grounded, putting her team in the spotlight.

“Of course, this personal title is always a nice thing to have and a nice memory, especially after such a hard season for me with my foot and my knee.

“But the top scorer title is also teamwork. I only play in attack and Anika [Niederwieser] is fighting in the back, in defence. What Natsuki [Aizawa] is doing for me and for the whole team is huge. If she's not playing, it is also much harder for me. So I would say this is a reward for the whole team,” explains Reichert.

That team-first mentality has become part of Reichert's identity during her years in Thüringer. Arriving at the club as a teenager, she leaves as one of its leaders and as one of the players who helped shape the club's European chapters — EHF European League Women champions and runners-up, alongside with the success in Germany.

In the summer of 2026 she is leaving Germany to join Gloria Bistrita, a chapter she is excited about, but she does not hide her emotions when talking about leaving Thüringer.

“I came here when I was 19. I grew up in this club. I became a woman here. It's really hard for me to leave, but at the same time it's really nice that I have one last opportunity to fight with the girls and cheer with the fans at the highest level.

“But, also, I'm really excited for a completely new chapter. It's going to be completely new. I don't know the language and I don't know the girls, so it's going to be a new adventure for me,” says Reichert.

At Thüringer HC, it is almost impossible to tell the club's story without mentioning Herbert and Helfried Müller, and they also had an important part in Reichert's progress as a player, and the mindset they implemented will stay with her.

“I think Helfried knows me since I'm 15 and Herbert knows me since I'm 17, so it's been a really long time. What I learned here, it's always believing in yourself. Always doing something 100 per cent.

"Believe in yourself. I think what I really learned in THC and what the club stands for is fighting with heart. That mindset is what helped me become the player I am today,” concludes Reichert her story at the end of the EHF Finals Dijon métropole 2026.

Photos © Foxaep