Legendary handball player Henrik Möllgaard says he doesn’t like his role as a destroyer of the game. The bearded fool is a real cult figure in Denmark.
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– Do you want to interview me? Why don’t you interview them? asks a sane bearded man in the Paris Sud Arena, a smile on his face.
Denmark has just beaten the French handball team in a show-style 37-29 in an infernal atmosphere, where the durability of the tube stands under the jumping crowd of spectators was tested in real action.
The defense, considered the best in Europe, has been humiliated once, but the gestures of the winners are restrained after the opening match of the first group. After all, the prelude to the tournament has just been played.
Denmark continued its winning streak on Monday as well, when Egypt fell 30–27.
Left back Henrik Möllgaard, 39, has been on the field sparingly. The old body is saved for more important battles.
Urheilu’s attention should now be on him Simon To Pytlick and Mathias to Gidselwho scored 11 goals each and were undeniably absolutely brilliant.
These titanic countries have met very often in the finals of the prestigious competition in recent years, such as in the last two Olympic finals, of which each has won one.
Next, stakes in the pin
When the teams next meet in the Olympic tournament in Paris, the stakes are already high and Möllgaard, one of the legends of his place of play, will play a completely different role.
For long periods of time, the player considered to be the best player in the history of the sport even sat on the bench next to Möllgaard Mikkel Hansen, 36, who “only” hit six tough shots out of seven. Keeper Niklas Landin35, rejected what he thought.
With these men, they have won almost everything possible in the national team Mads Mensah and Lasse Svan have already left these patterns.
And now the rips of the old player body are leaving.
– Mikkel and Niklas will quit the national team after the Olympic Games, but at least I don’t want to quit. Someone old has to stay to help the young, even if they get to build a national team that looks like themselves, says Möllgaard, the father of two handball-playing daughters.
The meaning is huge
Since handball is a small sport in Finland, it is necessary to relate the importance of the national handball team to the Danes. With the help of old men, the country has won e.g. Olympic gold in 2016 and silver in 2021, as well as three previous World Cup golds.
The team and its approachable athlete personalities are very loved in the juttila. The national handball team is considered a real national team in Denmark.
There is also money in handball, but the sums are comprehensible to the average person, unlike in top football, which has distanced its top players from the payers a long time ago.
– I am in the national team to help and make sacrifices, says Möllgaard.
That sums up his cult reputation and importance in Denmark, which values the ethos of work highly.
A terrible role
The role of receiving and stopping attacks in handball is terrible for the 39-year-old’s tested body.
– I will take as much pain as I have to for the team.
A memory picture of the city of Fredericia from the terrace of a night restaurant from June 2023. Henrik Möllgaard was called Herra Mustelma by the young men who were fans of their home handball team. The story makes Möllgaard laugh a lot.
– I take that as a compliment, and there is a lot of truth in it.
Even if the appearance of the 196-centimeter Möllgaard, who made his debut in the national team in 2006, in Denmark’s attacking formation would be a real rarity today. This has not always been the case.
Today, Möllgaard, who plays in the Danish top team Aalborg, has even won the top scorer in the Danish premier league in 2013-2014. The big change started in the middle of the last decade.
– I moved to Paris St. Germain, where there were much better players than me in attack. I had to change and I became a game destroyer instead of a game creator. I didn’t like it then and I don’t always like it now, but because I like winning so much, it was and is my only way to keep up.