Men’s EHF EURO 2026 in numbers: from 0 to 53,586

0 EHF EURO 2026 participants are debutants; Italy, the Faroe Islands and Georgia have their second appearances at the final tournament. 

1 host only has won gold at the Men’s EHF EURO so far: Sweden in 2002.

1 team — again Sweden — has managed to win the Men’s EHF EURO three times in a row: in 1998, 2000 and 2002. Spain were close to doing so, but lost the 2022 final by 27:26 against Sweden, after winning gold in 2018 and 2020.

1 person only is a Men’s EHF EURO champion both as player (2006, 2010) and coach (2024): France’s Guillaume Gille.

1 German became an EHF EURO top scorer: Thomas Knorr, father of current national team player Juri Knorr, netted 41 times in 1996 to top the rankings.

1 time — at the Men’s EHF EURO 2008 in Norway — three players shared the top scorer award: Ivano Balic (Croatia), Lars Christiansen (Denmark) and Nikola Karabatic (France), all with 44 goals, and all three representing the medalists. In 2024, Martim Costa (Portugal) and Mathias Gidsel (Denmark) were the top scorers with 54 goals each.

1 team in 16 editions of the Men’s EHF EURO has made it to the semi-final and never won a medal: Poland in 2010, at the final tournament held in Austria.

1 — only one men’s team was EHF EURO champion, world champion and Olympic champion at the same time: France in 2010 and 2015. Denmark aim to do so now.

1 top scorer only — Lars Christiansen in 2008 — won the gold medal at the same EHF EURO.

1 person is the only non-Swedish player with four EHF EURO trophies: French player Nikola Karabatic, who won the trophy in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2024.

2 times in Men’s EHF EURO history has the top scorer also been named MVP: Nikola Karabatic in   2008 and Filip Jicha in 2010.

2 coaches have steered countries other than their home nations to the winners’ podium at Men’s EHF EURO events: Icelander Dagur Sigurdsson with Germany in 2016 and Norwegian Glenn Solberg with Sweden in 2022.

2 — for the second time after 2014, the men’s European champions will be crowned in Herning, Denmark.

2 — for the second time after 2020, the Men’s EHF EURO will be hosted by three countries: Sweden and Norway were co-hosts in 2020 (alongside Austria) and are Men’s EHF EURO hosts for the third time in total, while Denmark were hosts in 2014 and have their second such event on home ground.

3 current head coaches of the 24 participants were EHF EURO champions as players: Staffan Olsson (with Sweden/current coach of the Netherlands), Guillaume Gille (with France/current coach of France) and Didier Dinart (with France/current coach of Montenegro). Four more head coaches were EHF EURO finalists: Uroš Zorman (Slovenia/with Slovenia), Iker Romero (Austria/with Spain), Raul Gonzalez (Serbia/with Spain) and Chema Rodriguez (Hungary/with Spain).

3 nations have been part of all 16 Men’s EHF EURO final tournaments, including 2026: France, Croatia and Spain. Denmark, Germany and Sweden play their 16th Men’s EHF EURO event.

3 nations won all their six qualifiers on the way towards the Men’s EHF EURO 2026: Slovenia, Iceland and Croatia. Hungary and Germany finished the qualifiers unbeaten.

3 times — in 2008, 2010, 2020 — Croatia have been Men’s EHF EURO finalists, but have never taken the trophy

3 current head coaches among the 24 participants steered teams to gold at the Men’s EHF EURO: Guillaume Gille (France/with France in 2024), Jordi Ribera (Spain/with Spain in 2018 and 2020) and Dagur Sigurdsson (Croatia) with Germany in 2016.

3 different Czech players have been top scorers of Men’s EHF EURO final tournaments: Jan Filip, Filip Jicha and Ondřej Zdráhala — no other nation can count more top scorers.

3 players have each been named MVP of Men’s EHF EURO final tournaments twice: Ivano Balic, Nikola Karabatic and Jim Gottfridsson.

3 nations have won the full set of Men’s EHF EURO medals: Germany, Denmark and Spain. France have never won silver, Sweden and Russia have never won bronze, Croatia have never won gold.

4 — every time France reached the EHF EURO final, they won it: in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2024.

4 Men’s EHF EURO hosts have made it to the final on home soil and left with silver: Spain in 1996, Slovenia in 2004, Serbia in 2012 and Denmark in 2014.

4 times a Swedish or a French player has been named MVP of a Men’s EHF EURO: Magnus Andersson (in 1994), Magnus Wislander (in 2002) and Jim Gottfridsson (in 2018 and 2022) for Sweden, as well as Jackson Richardson (in 2000), Nikola Karabatic (in 2008 and 2014) and Nedim Remili (in 2024) for France.

4 cities host the Men’s EHF EURO 2026: Herning (Denmark), Oslo/Bærum (Norway), Malmö and Kristianstad (both Sweden).

4 countries qualified for the final tournament as the best third-ranked teams in their qualification groups: Italy, Romania, Ukraine and Switzerland.

5 times Sweden became Men’s EHF EURO champions and are the current record holders. They took their last trophy in 2022 after a 20-year wait.

5 Swedish players were four-time EHF EURO champions: Ola Lindgren, Staffan Olsson, Stefan Lövgren, Magnus Wislander and Martin Frändesjö.

6 players aim for their third EHF EURO trophy in 2026: Matthieu Grébille (France), as well as Rodrigo Corrales, Alex Dujshebaev, Daniel Dujshebaev, Ferran Solé and Adrián Figueras (all Spain).

6 different nations have been Men’s EHF EURO champions: Sweden (five times), France (four times), Germany, Denmark, Spain (two times each) and Russia (once).

9 medals were won by Spain at the Men’s EHF EURO so far to top this ranking, ahead of Denmark (eight medals), Sweden (seven medals), France and Croatia (six medals each).

12 different countries have won medals at Men’s EHF EURO events: Sweden, Russia, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Norway and Iceland.

13 goals is the biggest gap in a Men’s EHF EURO final, at the maiden edition in 1994, when Sweden beat Russia 34:21.

16 Men’s EHF EURO tournaments have been played in 15 different countries. Croatia is the only country that hosted the final tournament twice outright (2000 and 2018). The 2020 hosts Sweden, Norway and Austria had been individual hosts before, while the 2022 edition was the first to be played in two countries (Hungary and Slovakia). Germany was the first single host of 24 teams in 2024.

18 nations have been represented in the Men’s EHF EURO All-star Teams since 1994.

22 teams that qualified for the Men’s EHF EURO 2026 were part of the previous final tournament, in 2024. The only exceptions are Italy and Ukraine.

24 teams are part of the Men’s EHF EURO 2026, for the fourth time since 2020.

28 — Romania waited 28 years for their third-ever appearance at a Men’s EHF EURO; they returned to the final tournament in 2024, after previously qualifying in 1994 and 1996, and are now entering their fourth final tournament. Italy had a similar experience: after hosting the EHF EURO in 1998, they now make a return to the final tournament.

65 goals were scored by Norwegian Sander Sagosen to become the best scorer at a single EHF EURO finals tournament, in 2020 in Sweden, Norway and Austria.

79 matches at EHF EURO final tournaments were played by four-time European champion Nikola Karabatic, between 2004 and 2024, to top this ranking ahead of Raul Entrerrios (Spain/60 matches) and Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson (Iceland/59 matches).

295 goals at the EHF EURO final tournaments represent another record of Nikola Karabatic, who broke the previous record of Icelander Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson (288) at the 2024 tournament in Germany, netting 16 times.

15,000 spectators is the capacity of the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning and the Malmö Arena, while the Unity Arena in Oslo/Bærum can hold 9,000 fans. Kristianstad Arena is the smallest venue of the final tournament with a capacity of 4,500 fans. The biggest venues at EHF EURO final tournaments (excluding the opening match in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2024) were the MVM Dome Budapest (2022/20,022 fans), Kombank Arena Belgrade (2012/20,000 fans) and LANXESS arena in Cologne (2024/19,750 fans). 

53,586 fans was the world-record crowd at the opening match of the EHF EURO 2024 in Düsseldorf’s football arena.

Photos © kolektiff