Hosts Germany take under-21 world title

It is the third time Germany take the under-21 world title, after their back-to-back successes in 2009 and 2011. The result kept Hungary waiting for their first crown, as they lost a final for the second time after 1977.

Spain and Portugal, winners and runners-up of the Men’s 20 EHF EURO 2022, finished ninth and sixth, respectively.

France, who won gold when the tournament was last held in 2019 before the pandemic, missed out on the semi-finals for the first time since 2011 and finished 11th.

The Junior World Championship was staged with 32 teams for the first time. European teams made for half of the participants; the highest-ranked non-European nation was Egypt in 10th place.

2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship

• Germany led Hungary 14:11 at half-time in the final before closing out a comprehensive 30:23 win – the biggest winning margin in Men’s Junior World Championship finals in 12 years.
• Justus Fischer and Elias Scholtes both contributed six goals to Germany’s final triumph; Bence Imre netted five times for Hungary.
• Germany became the first team since France in 2015 to secure the title by winning all their matches in regular time; the same would have applied to Hungary as well, as they had also won all their matches coming into the final.
• The gold medal adds to Germany head coach Martin Heuberger’s impressive tally, as he previously led the team when they won the 2009 and 2011 world titles and the 2004 and 2006 European titles.
• Iceland made the difference in the bronze medal match after the break: from 13:13 at half-time, they ultimately defeated Serbia 27:23.
• The result saw Iceland return to the podium of a Men’s Junior World Championship after exactly three decades: bronze from the 1993 edition was their only previous medal.
• The tournament set a record for most goals scored at Men’s Junior World Championships: the 6,805 goals in 116 matches was not only the highest number of goals in total, but also on average. The 58.66 goals per match beat the previous record of 58.23 from the 2009 championship – which Germany also won.
• Led by MVP Nils Lichtlein, Germany have taken the most positions in the tournament’s All-star team: three.

• All-star Team:
  - goalkeeper: David Späth (GER)
  - left wing: Pedro Oliveira (POR)
  - left back: Miloš Kos (SRB)
  - centre back: Elias Ellefsen Á Skipagotu (FAR)
  - line player: Justus Fischer (GER)
  - right back: Zoran Ilic (HUN)
  - right wing: Kristófer Máni Jónasson (ISL)
  - MVP: Nils Lichtlein (GER)
  - top scorer: Elias Ellefsen Á Skipagotu (FAR), Naoki Fujisaka (JAP) – 55 goals

photos © IHF/kolektiff