Bundesliga | Handball: The masterpiece of the Füchse Berlin

On Sunday afternoon around 3:30 a.m., there was no need for a scoreboard to guess the result. One look at Stefan Kretzschmar's face was enough. The sporting director of Füchse Berlin was fidgeting in his seat in the stands of the Mannheim Arena, extremely tense and unable to quite believe what was unfolding before his eyes.

Surgery without anesthesia

The Berliners played perhaps their weakest half of the season. The team, which last lost a Bundesliga match on December 16, 2024, appeared fidgety, unfocused, and nervous – and threatened to let the long-awaited first championship in the club's history slip away in the final stretch. In front of 13,000 spectators, the Berliners trailed 17:20 against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen at halftime. Would the Füchse, who had swept past their national and international rivals in recent weeks and months, actually show nerves?

"The first 30 minutes felt like wisdom tooth surgery – without anesthesia," said Berlin's managing director Bob Hanning later: "You could practically feel the tension." In the end, Operation Title was a success after all. Thanks to a tremendous improvement in performance in the second half, the Berlin team successfully brought their one-point lead over their fiercest rivals, SC Magdeburg, over the finish line. The score was 38:32 against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, who said goodbye to their long-time coach Sebastian Hinze and playmaker Juri Knorr in front of a sold-out crowd and, not least for that reason, proved to be a highly unruly opponent. "Normally, in a moment like this, the underlying feeling should be exuberant joy. But it's a mixture of satisfaction, relief, and joy because an incredible amount of pressure has been lifted from us today," said Kretzschmar: "I'm extremely proud of the club, the team, and how they handled it again today."

Offensive as a trump card

The match on Whitsun Sunday was emblematic of the entire Berlin season, as it once again highlighted the Füchse's greatest strengths : incredible attacking power, coupled with an extremely high tempo over 60 minutes, and the fact that the team remains cool even in critical phases. Coach Jaron Siewert's team averaged 35.2 goals per game, thus disproving the truism that offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

Almost a quarter of Berlin's 1,197 goals were scored by the season's outstanding player, Mathias Gidsel. In Mannheim , the Danish world champion was once again Berlin's top scorer with ten goals. However, reducing the Füchse's success solely to Gidsel and his individual abilities does the Berlin team no justice. Over the course of the season, they consistently demonstrated that they are a team that has grown over the years, surviving countless pressure situations together and emerging stronger.

It's all about the mix

"We have a really good mix in the team," says Kretzschmar. In addition to top international players like Gidsel, goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev, captain Max Darj, and backcourt shooter Lasse Andersson, the squad also includes five home-grown handball players who won the World Cup with the U21 national team two years ago and now play key roles in the club. No other German club has as much permeability between the youth and professional teams as the Füchse. Tim Freihöfer and Nils Lichtlein are prime examples of this. Like Gidsel, Freihöfer has scored more than 200 goals this season and is the discovery of the season on the left wing. Lichtlein is preparing to compete with Germany's best playmaker of the moment: quite a few experts see the 22-year-old as an even better midfielder than Knorr.

Fittingly, the ensemble is orchestrated by a true Berliner: Coach Jaron Siewert, who already wore the Füchse jersey in the U19 team, and as of Sunday, he's become the youngest championship-winning coach in Bundesliga history. "I'm truly completely empty today because the game demanded everything from us," said Siewert, who was already named "Coach of the Year" at the last home game against Gummersbach.

The next title

After the championship trophy was handed over, the Füchse returned home that evening. To celebrate the occasion, Hanning had organized a charter flight to bring the team to Berlin as quickly as possible. Around 2,000 fans, who had previously watched the masterpiece on giant screens, were already waiting on the Badeschiff (bathing ship) on the Spree River. "We're going to celebrate really hard today," announced Kretzschmar. Next weekend, the Berliners can add the finishing touch to their already historic season: They will compete in the Final Four in Cologne and play for the Champions League title. Given their performances over the past few months, it's not a bold prediction to count the Füchse among the favorites.