How our Parisians fared at Euro 22

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With January's European Championship 2022 having concluded, we take a look back and assess the individual performances of the Paris Saint-Germain Handball who were there representing their respective countries.

Three medallists
It was a certainty before the final day of the competition: several Parisians were going to be medallists at the end of Euro 2022. And in the end there were three Rouge et Bleus who returned to Paris with an award around their necks. First, our two Danes, Mikkel Hansen and Henrik Toft Hansen, brought back bronze after beating France (Vincent Gérard, Nikola Karabatic, Benoît Kounkoud and Mathieu Grébille) during a suspenseful third-place play-off (victory for the Scandinavians 35-32 after extra time). Meanwhile Ferran Solé Sala (deprived of appearing in the final four following a positive COVID test), a two-time winner, this time brought home the silver. Our Spanish winger's compatriots went on to be beaten Sweden in the final on Sunday afternoon (27-26).

Two Parisians in the Best 7
Shortly before the end of the competition, the EHF published the names of the eight players to make the All-star team of this European Championship (six outfield players, a goalkeeper and a defender). In this list, there were two Parisians, who play at the back, and unsurprisingly, Mikkel Hansen was one of them. Our left-back was once again brilliant (see next paragraph) and was one of the driving forces of the Dane's run in the competition. Mikky was accompanied by his club centre-half Luc Steins. For his first participation in a Euro, Luc turned in some excellent performances, notably a 6 from 6 against Croatia (28-28).

Mikky brilliant once more
In addition to his bronze medal, Mikky shone on the individual level. Named best left-back in the competition, our Dane once again showed himself to be up to the challenge of an international competition. He finished as second-top scorer in the tournament with 47 goals from 68 attempts. Some of them particularly caught the attention of the spectators, like his shot that was measured at 139 km/h (third fastest of the Euro), attempted against the Croats (27-25). He also became the third player to reach the symbolic 250-goal mark at the European Championships.

Luc and his skill
In the centre of the game, Luc Steins once again excelled in the art of passing. He was the second-most successful player of the tournament with 1188 balls passed to his partners. All this with an almost impeccable efficiency as he only missed five (99.6% of successful passes). He also distinguished himself in front of goal, finishing as the Netherlands' third-best scorer, with 22 goals in seven appearances.

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The French answer the call
In terms of players who clocked the most minutes at Euro 22, there were two notable names from Paris Saint-Germain Handball. In fifth place, we find Vincent Gérard, who played 370 minutes for Les Bleus (78 saves). Nikola Karabatic was also used a lot by the French staff - during the fortnight, he played 318 minutes, which makes him the third-most used French player of the competition. Another statistic in Niko's favor: he ranked 12th in terms of distance covered, having run 26.86 km. He took advantage of this to find the back of the goal 15 times. Finally, we note that Benoît Kounkoud (14 goals), was one of the fastest players of the Euro, with one of his sprints clocked at 31 km/h!

Our players' stats:

  • Vincent Gérard (France): 9 matches, 78 saves
  • Luc Steins (Netherlands): 7 matches, 22 goals
  • Nikola Karabatic (France): 8 matches, 15 goals
  • Mikkel Hansen (Denmark): 7 matches, 47 goals
  • Benoît Kounkoud (France): 9 matches, 14 goals
  • Ferran Solé Sala (Spain): 7 matches, 19 goals
  • Henrik Toft Hansen (Denmark): 5 matches, 1 goal
  • Kamil Syprzak (Poland): 7 matches, 13 goals

(Credits: FFHandball / Iconsport)