Karabatic in the town – with a new jersey, new teammates and a new special fan

The international handball stars the likes of Thierry Omeyer, Filip Jicha, Daniel Narcisse or Domagoj Duvnjak have several things in common? They have all been awarded the IHF Player of the Year award in the past or they have won the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne at least once.

But another point is that they have never been able to lift the trophy in the LANXESS arena twice in a row. The reason? While some say it is difficult to retain the title because of a top-level quality of the tournament and of the European top flight in general, others like to name the arena’s spell as the reason.

Not only none of the six previous winners were able to defend the trophy, but also individual efforts have been shattered. The most recent example was Steffen Weinhold last year, who tried to grab the trophy with Kiel after cheering with Flensburg in 2014.

The new edition of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 will see a new attempt to break the curse. The defending champions FC Barcelona Lassa were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Kiel, but their former player and the 2015 MVP, Nikola Karabatic will be coming to the LANXESS arena this weekend with a new jersey on his shoulders.

“Nothing makes me confident about winning the title again this year,” he said on Thursday after arriving with Paris Saint-Germain Handball in Cologne.

“It’s a big competition and we fought all year long to come to Cologne and it was very tough. All the teams are great teams, there are four strong contenders. We hope we still have the …

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