Mum’s gold medal as an inspiration

At 27, Vogel is thus approaching what would be her sixth European Championship since making her national team debut in 2016. On several occasions, she and the German team came close to reaching an EHF EURO semi-final, but always fell just short. At the 2025 World Championship, however, the breakthrough finally came, fuelled by the euphoria of playing at home, Germany reached the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since the EHF EURO 2008. They then defeated France for the first time in 20 years and pushed Norway until shortly before the final whistle in the final, eventually losing 20:23. Nevertheless, the silver medal was their greatest success since the silver won at the first EHF EURO in 1994, when Vogel’s mother Andrea Bölk was still part of the German squad, having become world champion the year before.

"I used to play with my mum’s gold medal at home," said Vogel. The fact that she had previously not been nominated for two test matches in spring 2025 did not weigh on the former German team captain: "Pressure is part of my daily business, to be quite honest. I’ve been around for quite a few years now. I’m not even sure since when I’ve been the face many people know and associate with women’s handball. So you do take quite a bit. That’s why I’m also enjoying putting my face to it when things are going really well. A lot of things don’t bother me that much anymore. I know that I can play handball. There are always highs and lows — and I’m really enjoying the current high," she said after the World Championship.

Now comes her 150th international appearance: "It has been a long time, but I haven’t thought too much about it yet. It is always a joy for me to take the court with the German jersey on. The home World Championship was obviously a huge highlight, but I want to wear this shirt for many more years and experience many more moments like that." That is also the hope of Germany’s national coach, Markus Gaugisch: "150 international matches is an incredible number, Emily can be very proud of that. And I’m sure many more will follow."

At the World Championship, Vogel not only won silver but was also named to the All-star Team. "That meant a great deal to me, together with the silver medal. This award underlines the role I took on in the team and that I was able to help the team. But honestly, the silver medal counts even more, because we achieved that as a team." As far as her role in the squad is concerned, Vogel says it makes no difference "whether I score goals or provide assists that lead to goals. I enjoy both."

Looking ahead to Sunday’s qualifier against Slovenia, she hopes the team will secure early qualification for the European Championship: "We are the favourites, we have dealt with the matches so far very confidently, and we are top of the table. Now we want to book the EHF EURO ticket so that, ideally, we can reach for the stars in December," says Vogel. "The first leg win on Wednesday was never really in danger, even though we had some communication issues in defence at the beginning. Overall, we handled it well."

photos © IHF / kolektiff (main) Marco Wolf (first in-text); Sasa Pahic Szabo (other in-text)