IHF World Player of the Year
SportHandball
CompetitionInternational Handball
Awarded forBest Performance in International Handball Competitions
History
First award1988
Most winsMen:Denmark Mikkel Hansen
France Nikola Karabatić
(3 awards each)
Women:Romania Cristina Neagu
(4 awards)
Most recentMen: Denmark Niklas Landin Jacobsen (2nd title)
Women: Denmark Sandra Toft (1st title)

The IHF World Player of the Year is a handball award given annually to the player who is considered to have performed the best in the previous season, both at club and international competitions. It is awarded based on votes from experts, media and fans.

About

The award was awarded by IHF since 1988 in both Men's and Women's Category separately.

No award was awarded in the years 1991, 1992, 1993 and 2017.[1][2]

Men

Year Winner Country Position Ref.
1988 Veselin Vujović  Yugoslavia Left back
1989 Kang Jae-Won  South Korea Right back
1990 Magnus Wislander  Sweden Center back
1991 No vote
1992
1993
1994 Talant Dujshebaev  Russia Centre back
1995 Jackson Richardson  France Centre back
1996 Talant Dujshebaev (2)  Spain Centre back
1997 Stéphane Stoecklin  France Right back
1998 Daniel Stephan  Germany Left back
1999 Rafael Guijosa  Spain Left wing
2000 Dragan Škrbić  Yugoslavia Line player
2001 Yoon Kyung-Shin  South Korea Right back
2002 Bertrand Gille  France Line player
2003 Ivano Balić  Croatia Centre back
2004 Henning Fritz  Germany Goalkeeper
2005 Arpad Šterbik  Serbia and Montenegro Goalkeeper
2006 Ivano Balić (2)  Croatia Centre back
2007 Nikola Karabatić  France Centre back
2008 Thierry Omeyer  France Goalkeeper [3]
2009 Sławomir Szmal  Poland Goalkeeper [4]
2010 Filip Jícha  Czech Republic Left back [5]
2011 Mikkel Hansen  Denmark Left back [6]
2012 Daniel Narcisse  France Centre back [7]
2013 Domagoj Duvnjak  Croatia Centre back
2014 Nikola Karabatić (2)  France Centre back
2015 Mikkel Hansen (2)  Denmark Left back
2016 Nikola Karabatić (3)  France Centre back
2017 Not awarded
2018 Mikkel Hansen (3)  Denmark Left back [8]
2019 Niklas Landin Jacobsen  Denmark Goalkeeper [9]
2020 Not awarded
2021 Niklas Landin Jacobsen (2)  Denmark Goalkeeper [10]

Women

Year Winner Country Position
1988 Svetlana Kitić  Yugoslavia Centre back
1989 Kim Hyun-Mee  South Korea
1990 Jasna Kolar-Merdan  Austria Left back
1991 No vote
1992
1993
1994 Mia Hermansson  Sweden Centre back
1995 Erzsébet Kocsis  Hungary Line player
1996 Lim O-Kyeong  South Korea Centre back
1997 Anja Andersen  Denmark Left back
1998 Trine Haltvik  Norway Centre back
1999 Ausra Fridrikas  Austria Left back
2000 Bojana Radulović  Hungary Right back
2001 Cecilie Leganger  Norway Goalkeeper
2002 Zhai Chao  China Centre back
2003 Bojana Radulović (2)  Hungary Right back
2004 Anita Kulcsár  Hungary Line player
2005 Anita Görbicz  Hungary Centre back
2006 Nadine Krause  Germany Left back
2007 Gro Hammerseng  Norway Centre back
2008 Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth[11]  Norway Right wing
2009 Allison Pineau[12]  France Centre back
2010 Cristina Neagu[5]  Romania Left back
2011 Heidi Løke[6]  Norway Line player
2012 Alexandra do Nascimento[7]  Brazil Right wing
2013 Andrea Lekić  Serbia Centre back
2014 Eduarda Amorim  Brazil Left back
2015 Cristina Neagu (2)  Romania Left back
2016 Cristina Neagu (3)  Romania Left back
2017 Not awarded
2018 Cristina Neagu[8] (4)  Romania Left back
2019 Stine Bredal Oftedal[9]  Norway Centre back
2020 Not awarded
2021 Sandra Toft  Denmark Goalkeeper

Previous awards

While the IHF has only reported awards since 1988, other players have been voted best players in the world before.

Thus, the Romanian Ștefan Birtalan was elected World Player of the Year in 1974, 1976 and 1977.[13] And Ioan Moser of Romania was also named "Best Handball Player in the World” in 1964.[14]

Best players of all time

In 1992, Gheorghe Gruia of Romania was named Best Player of All Time by the International Handball Federation.[15][16]

In 2000, the Swedish Magnus Wislander and the Ukrainian Zinaida Turchyna were elected Players of the 20th Century by the IHF.[17][18]

Additionally, in 2010 Ivano Balić of Croatia and Svetlana Kitić of Yugoslavia were voted by the website users the Best Players Ever, but they were not named directly by the IHF.[19][20]

Team of the century

In 2000, the official bulletin of the International Handball Federation, World Handball Magazine, chose Gheorghe Gruia, Ioan Moser and Cornel Penu as members of the "Team of the Century".[21]

Other awards

In 2010, the fans voted Thierry Omeyer as world's best goalkeeper ever.[22] And in 2011, the fans voted for Luminița Dinu (born Huțupan) as best female goalkeeper ever.[23]

Previously in 2009, Steffen Fäth and Cristina Neagu respectively won Rookie of the Year award for male and female.[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pech für Andy Schmid: Wahl zum Welt-Handballer fällt aus". Tagblatt (in German). 27 June 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Overview: previous world handball player of the year – both male and female". handball-world. 4 July 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Player of the Year – Men 2008". IHF. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Player of the Year – Men 2009". IHF. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Neagu and Jicha World Handball Players of the Year 2010". IHF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  6. ^ a b "Heidi Løke and Mikkel Hansen World Handball Players of the Year 2011". International Handball Federation. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  7. ^ a b "Alexandra do Nascimento and Daniel Narcisse are GRUNDFOS World Handball Players of the Year 2012". International Handball Federation. 8 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  8. ^ a b "Neagu and Hansen named 2018 World Players of the Year". International Handball Federation. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Oftedal and Landin named 2019 IHF World Players of the Year". IHF. 18 July 2020.
  10. ^ "IHF | Danish delight in the 2021 IHF World Players and Coaches of the Year awards". www.ihf.info. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  11. ^ "Player of the Year – Women 2008". IHF. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  12. ^ "Player of the Year – Women 2009". IHF. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  13. ^ "HANDBALL LEGEND AMAZED BY CL FINAL". ehfcl.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  14. ^ "Einst verfemt, jetzt Ehrenbürger" (in German). Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  15. ^ "Handball World Mourns the Loss of Icon, Friend & Teacher". ihf.info. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  16. ^ "Gheorghe Gruia: La zurda rumana que dominó el mundo" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  17. ^ "Wislander "Welt-Handballer des Jahrhunderts"" (in German). thw-handball.de. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Турчина — лучшая гандболистка века" (in Russian). kommersant.ru. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  19. ^ Ivano Balic voted best male player ever
  20. ^ Svetlana Kitic voted best female player ever
  21. ^ "Geschichten rund um den Handball in Siebenbürgen (XIV)" (in German). Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  22. ^ Voting of the IHF users: Omeyer world’s best goalkeeper
  23. ^ Fans vote for Luminita Dinu as best female goalkeeper ever
  24. ^ Neagu, “World’s best Rookie of the Year 2009”

External links

International handball
International men's handball
International women's handball
International Handball Federation (IHF)
IHF World Player of the Year – Men
IHF World Player of the Year – Women
Categories