Barça, Kielce have most players at World Championship

Although injuries have ruled out a number of stars like Kamil Syprzak (PSG/Poland), Haniel Langaro (Barça/Brazil), Omar Yahia (Veszprém/Egypt) or Aitor Ariño (Barça/Spain), the World Championship still includes a large armada of EHF Champions League players.

Both finalists of the EHF FINAL4 Men 2022 – Barça and Kielce – lead the way with each 12 players competing for their respective national team; eight different nations in case of Barça, five in case of Kielce.

Szeged are next in line with 11 players in action at the World Championship; Veszprém and Magdeburg follow with 10 each. Elverum have the fewest players in action at Poland-Sweden 2023: two.

Remarkably, goalkeeper Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas is the only Barça player competing for Spain. Also, Kiel have just one player competing for Germany, and HBC Nantes one for France.

Machineseeker EHF Champions League clubs with players at World Championship:

12 players from 8 nations: Barça (1 BRA/1 CRO/1 EGY/3 FRA/1 POR/2 SLO/1 ESP/2 SWE)

12 players from 5 nations: Industria Kielce (1 CRO/3 FRA/1 GER/4 POL/3 ESP)

11 players from 6 nations: OTP Bank - Pick Szeged (5 HUN/1 NOR/1 POR/1 SRB/2 SLO/1 ESP)

10 players from 7 nations: Telekom Veszprém HC (1 DEN/1 EGY/1 FRA/3 HUN/1 ISL/2 SRB/1 ESP)

10 players from 7 nations: SC Magdeburg (1 DEN/3 GER/2 ISL/1 NED/1 NOR/1 POL/1 SWE)

8 players from 5 nations: THW Kiel (1 CRO/2 DEN/1 GER/2 NOR/2 SWE)

8 players from 4 nations: HC PPD Zagreb (5 CRO/1 HUN/1 SRB/1 SLO)

8 players from 4 nations: Aalborg Håndbold (3 DEN/1 ISL/2 NOR/2 SWE)

7 players from 5 nations: HBC Nantes (1 FRA/1 ISL/2 POR/1 SLO/2 ESP)

7 players from 3 nations: Orlen Wisla Plock (2 CRO/4 POL/1 ESP)

7 players from 4 nations: Paris Saint-Germain HB (4 FRA/1 NED/1 ESP/1 SWE)

7 players from 2 nations: FC Porto (1 MKD/6 POR)

4 players from 4 nations: C.S. Dinamo Bucuresti (1 ALG/1 BRA/1 EGY/1 SRB)

4 players from 3 nations: GOG (2 DEN/1 SLO/1 SWE)

3 players from 1 nations: RK Celje Pivovarna Laško (3 SLO)

2 players from 2 nations: Elverum Handball (1 NOR/1 SRB)

A total of 18 of the 32 participating teams at the World Championship, including three from outside Europe, have one or more players from EHF Champions League clubs in their squad. The only European team without an EHF Champions League player is Montenegro.

The squad of Olympic champions France includes 12 players from Europe’s top-level club competition; five other nations all have 10 EHF Champions League players to chose from: Men’s EHF EURO 2022 finalists Sweden and Spain, as well as Slovenia, Croatia and Portugal.

National teams at World Championship with players from Machineseeker EHF Champions League clubs:

12 players from 5 CL clubs: France

10 players from 6 CL clubs: Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

10 players from 5 CL clubs: Croatia

10 players from 4 CL clubs: Portugal

9 players from 5 CL clubs: Denmark

9 players from 3 CL clubs: Poland, Hungary

7 players from 5 CL clubs: Norway

6 players from 5 CL clubs: Serbia

5 players from 4 CL clubs: Iceland

5 players from 3 CL clubs: Germany

3 players from 3 CL clubs: Egypt

2 players from 2 clubs: Brazil, Netherlands

1 player: Algeria, North Macedonia

photos © 2023 Sasa Pahic Szabo, Anze Malovrh / kolektiff