Fresh faces, a new record winner and only three former champions

1 debutant is among the 16 teams of the 2024/25 season: Danish runners-up Fredericia Håndbold Klub, who made it to the finals of the Danish league and were close to snatching the trophy from 2024 EHF Champions League finalists Aalborg Håndbold. 

1 - only one team has managed to defend the trophy since the implementation of the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne in 2010: record and defending champions Barça beat Kielce in the 2022 final after overtime and a penalty shootout. In 2021, the record winners beat Aalborg Håndbold in the final. 

1 coach has won the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne as a player and coach: Filip Jicha (with Kiel in 2010 and 2012 as player and 2020 as THW coach).

1 draw only is needed before the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2025; the one for the semi-finals. The remaining rounds towards the pinnacle event are decided by the final ranking of the group phase. The 16th edition of the EHF FINAL4 will be played on 14/15 June 2025 at the LANXESS arena in Cologne. 

1 time only - in 2018 - neither a German nor a Spanish team took part in the EHF FINAL4.

2 EHF FINAL4 finals so far have been decided by penalty shootouts – and in both games, Kielce were involved: in the 2016 edition they beat Veszprém, 39:38, and in 2022, they lost against Barça, 35:37.

2 coaches have led two different teams to EHF Champions League trophies: Iceland-born Alfred Gislason (2002 SC Magdeburg, 2010 and 2012 THW Kiel) and Talant Dujshebaev (2006, 2008, 2009 Ciudad Real, 2016 Kielce). 

2 - the two group winners and runners-up all qualify directly from the group phase to the quarter-finals.

2 teams per group, finishing in seventh and eighth position in the final ranking, will end their European journey after the group phase.

2 Barça players won their fifth trophy in Cologne in 2024: Aitor Ariño, and Gonzalo Perez de Vargas. 

2 former or current IHF World Handball Players of the Year are part of the 16 squads of this Machineseeker EHF Champions League season: Niklas Landin (Aalborg/2019, 2021) and Mathias Gidsel (Füchse Berlin/2023). Nikola Karabatic (PSG/2007, 2014, 2016) and Mikkel Hansen (Aalborg/2011, 2015, 2018) have now finished their respective careers. 

2 - in the group phase, play-offs and quarter-finals, matches will be played at two different throw-off times; 18:45 or 20:45 CET/CEST, just as in recent seasons, on either Wednesday or Thursday.

3 former or current EHF Champions League winners, with a total of 14 trophies between them, are part of the 2024/25 group phase: Barça (11), Magdeburg (2) and Kielce (1).

3 participants of the 2024 EHF FINAL4 are part of the group phase: Barça, Aalborg and Magdeburg – THW Kiel failed to qualify for the Machineseeker EHF Champions League and will play in the EHF European League this season. 

4 current coaches of the 16 teams have won the EHF Champions League as players: Talant Dujshebaev (Kielce - with Santander), David Davis (Dinamo Bucuresti - with Ciudad Real), Jonas Källman (OTP Bank - PICK Szeged – with Ciudad Real) and Bennet Wiegert (SC Magdeburg – with SC Magdeburg). New Aalborg coach Maik Machulla was officially an assistant coach of SG Flensburg-Handewitt when they won the EHF Champions League in 2024, but was also on the player list.

4 people have won the EHF Champions League as a player and a coach: Carlos Ortega (Barça), Talant Dujshebaev (Santander, Ciudad Real, Kielce), Roberto Parrondo (Ciudad Real and Vardar) and Filip Jicha (Kiel). 

4 former EHF Champions League top scorers are part of the competition this season: Kamil Syprzak (PSG/2023/2024), Aleix Gomez (Barça/2021/22), Valero Rivera (Nantes/2020/21) and Alex Dujshebaev (Kielce/2018/19).

4 players have scored more than 1,000 goals in EHF Champions League history. The list is topped by Kiril Lazarov (1482), third-placed Timur Dibirov (1164) is the only player still active, playing for HC Zagreb.

5 MVPs of the previous EHF FINAL4 tournaments are on court in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League this season: Melvyn Richrdson (Barça/2024), Gisli Kristjansson (Magdeburg/2023), Artsem Karalek (Kielce/2022), Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (Barça/2021) and Igor Karacic (Kielce/2019).

5 teams who featured in the 2023/24 competition are not in the 2024/25 edition: HBC Nantes replace Montpellier as the second French participant, Fredericia replace GOG as Danish runners-up, Sporting CP participate as Portuguese champions, succeeding FC Porto. Füchse Berlin and Dinamo Bucuresti return to the top flight competition in place of THW Kiel and RK Celje Pivovarna Laško.

5 current coaches of the 16 teams have won the EHF Champions League as coaches: Bennet Wiegert (with Magdeburg), Carlos Ortega (with Barça), Talant Dujshebaev (Kielce - with Ciudad Real and Kielce), Raul Gonzalez (PSG - with Vardar) and Xavi Pascual (Bucuresti, with Barça).

5 nations are represented by two participants each in the 2024/25 season; France, Germany, Poland, Denmark and Hungary.

5 times in a row (1996-2000) Valero Rivera López steered Barça to the winners’ podium of the EHF Champions League, no coach has won the trophy more often.

5 - only five times in 15 years has the defending champions made it to Cologne: Barça in 2022 and 2023, Kiel in 2013, Vardar in 2018 and Magdeburg in 2024.

6 countries are represented by the previous 31 EHF Champions League champions: Spain (17 titles), Germany (8), France (2), North Macedonia (2), Poland and Slovenia (each 1). In total, 13 different clubs are in the winners’ list of the competition.

7 of the 15 previous EHF FINAL4 tournaments have been won by teams taking part in the 2024/25 EHF Champions League season: Barça (5 trophies), Magdeburg and Kielce (1 each).

8 – six times as a player, twice as a coach, Carlos Ortega won the EHF Champions League. After winning the trophy in 2024, the Spaniard passed the previous record holder Andrei Xepkin, who won the trophy seven times as a player for Barça (6) and Kiel. 

8 of the 16 current teams have previously taken part in the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne: Barça, Aalborg, Magdeburg, Paris, Nantes, Veszprém, Kielce and Füchse.

10 different Spanish coaches have steered their teams to a total of 20 EHF Champions League trophies so far: Valero Rivera (5), Talant Dujshebaev (4), Xavi Pascual (3), Carlos Ortega (2), Javier Cuesta, Julian Ruiz, Francisco Equisoain, Francesc Espar, Raul Gonzalez and Roberto Parrondo (each 1). Dujshebaev (Kielce, 2016), Parrondo (Vardar, 2019), and Gonzalez (Vardar, 2017) were the only ones to win the trophy with non-Spanish teams. 

11 - the number of times Barça have won the EHF Champions League, making them the record winners (1995-2000, 2011, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2024). In addition, they won the Champions Cup (forerunner competition to the EHF Champions League) once. Kiel (2007, 2010, 2012, 2020) have won four trophies, Ciudad Real three (2006, 2008, 2009), Magdeburg (2002, 2023), Vardar (2017, 2019) and Montpellier (2003, 2018) have won two each. 

11 nations – the same number as in the previous two seasons - are represented by the 16 group phase participants; Croatia, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Romania – the only change was from Slovenia (Celje) to Romania (Dinamo). 

11 of the 16 teams were part of the CL group phase in the previous season. 

12 times out of 15, Barça were part of the EHF FINAL4, ahead of Kiel (9), Veszprém (7) and PSG (6).

13 goals in the 2021 final, Barça vs Aalborg (36:23), is the biggest margin of victory in all 30 matches at the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne so far.

17 times have Spanish teams won the EHF Champions League - Barça (11), Ciudad Real (3), Santander, Irun and Portland (each 1).

18 matches have been played by Gonzalo Perez de Vargas so far at EHF FINAL4 events, making the goalkeeper the record holder of those on court next season. The overall record is held by Aron Palmarsson with 19 matches.

16 or 18 matches will be played by the four teams who make it to the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne  - depending whether they skip the play-offs or not.

20 victories in 20 matches were secured by Barça in their perfect 2020/21 season.

21 years – 2002 to 2023 – was the gap between Magdeburg's two EHF Champions League titles.

31 - the number of times (including the new season) HC Zagreb are part of the EHF Champions League, ahead of Veszprém (30 participations), Barça and Celje (28 each) and Kiel (26). Celje and Kiel are not part of the 2024/25 season.

84 goals in only 12 matches at the EHF FINAL4 were scored by Aleix Gomez to make him the all-time top scorer of the event in Cologne ahead of Mikkel Hansen (81). 

132 matches will be played before the 2024/25 winner of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League winner will be crowned in Cologne - 112 group matches, eight play-offs, eight quarter-finals and four matches at the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4.

223 goals were scored at the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2024, 32 fewer than the year before. 

298 victories in 386 EHF Champions League matches (plus 23 draws and 65 defeats) have been won by Barça to put them top of the all-time EHF Champions League table. 

7786 goals were scored in 132 matches of the 2023/24 season of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League

Photos © Axel Heimken / kolektiff, Anze Malovrh / kolektiff,  Uros Hocevar / kolektiff, PIXSELL