33 players and one coach bring a taste of Rio to Cologne

Big teams such as Spain, Iceland and Hungary, not to mention names like Croatian goalkeeper Mirko Alilovic, will not be part of the Olympic handball tournament – but the VELUX EHF FINAL4 2016 in Cologne will nevertheless be a melting pot of Olympians. 33 players from MVM Veszprém, KS Vive Tauron Kielce, THW Kiel and Paris Saint-Germain Handball are set to be part of their yet-to-be-named national team squads at the Olympic Games from 6 to 21 August. PSG’s roster is almost identical to that of the French national team, Kielce squad forms a large part of the Poland side, and even Kiel have an unusually high number of Germans at present. As Hungary, Spain, Serbia and Iceland did not qualify for Rio, Veszprém have the lowest number of potential Olympians in their squad, with only four. Four of PSG’s Frenchmen are aiming to make their dream of triple Olympic gold come true: Thierry Omeyer, Nikola Karabatic, Luc Abalo and Daniel Narcisse.

Paris could have claimed another gold medallist in their start list, but former Croatia captain Igor Vori, who was part of the 2004 gold medal-winning team, is no longer named in the national squad. Renato Sulic (Veszprém) and Ilja Brozovic (Kiel) have taken his place.   Xavier Barachet, William Accambray and Samuel Honrubia were in Claude Onesta’s squad that won gold at London 2012, when they played Kiel right wing …

continue reading in source www.eurohandball.com