Sonja Frey hopes for Austrian support in Graz

After Austria took over the biggest part of the Women’s EHF EURO 2024, including hosting the main round and the final weekend in Vienna, hosting the EHF Finals is another boost for Austrian women’s handball. Although Graz is a neutral venue, one club especially hopes for support from the locals: Thüringer.

Three Austrian national team players are part of the THC squad – left wing Sonja Frey, left back Johanna Reichert and defence boss Josefine Huber. Meanwhile THC coach Herbert Müller is the Austrian women’s national team coach and his brother Helfried, an assistant coach at Thüringer, is junior national team coach in Austria.

“Though we really do not know how many Austrian fans will come, we really hope to get their support from the stands,” says Frey, the most experienced player internationally at THC.

Frey just turned 30 years old on 22 April and will face her former club Ikast in the semi-final. Last year, she played the EHF Finals in Viborg, losing in a close semi-final to eventual winners SG BBM Bietigheim from Germany.

From 2012 to 2016, Frey had her first stint at Thüringer, then moved to France (Dijon and Paris) for three years. She then moved to Denmark, playing first at Esbjerg, then last season at Ikast, before she returned to THC and Müller. Having scored 528 times in 107 international matches, Frey is also the top scorer of the current Austrian squad.

“Ikast are playing an outstanding European League season, and definitely they are the favourites for the trophy. In every position they have two top stars and count on a squad which would also have good chances in the EHF Champions League,” says Frey.

But she counts on this extra support for her and her teammates.

“It is great for Graz and for Austria to host this event. Looking back on the past years, the interest in women’s handball is growing more and more in Austria. Our national team had some good results in the past years, and I am sure by looking upon the EHF EURO 2024 we have can cause some more euphoria in Austria,” she believes.

“And for 13/14 May I hope that our Austrians will be boosted from the stands. I am sure that our club and the Austrian handball federation will promote that fact that three-and-a-half Austrians play for THC,” Frey says. The “half” Austrian player is Italian Annika Niederwieser, born in Brixen (South Tyrol) close to the Austrian border, just on the opposite side of the Brenner Pass.

Thüringer may well need that support.

“We had the longest way of all four teams to the EHF finals, and right from the first qualification round, we had the toughest possible opponents against us, like Chambray and Sävehof in the qualification, then Valcea and Paris in the group phase. So unfortunately our luck did not change in the semi-final draw. But maybe our Austrian power can bring us to the final,” Frey concludes.

Photos © Steffen Prößdorf