One premiere and one title defence in the voting for the IHF World Handball Coaches of the Year: Like at the voting for the coach of the year 2011, Thorir Hergeirsson (Norwegian national team) was voted by fans, media and an IHF expert jury as world’s best coach of a women’s team, and for the first time ever Valero Rivera (Spanish national team) was voted best coach of a male team.
Both winners finished equal in the end by one third of all votes each.
The female team voting:
Thorir Hergeirsson topped the ranking by 33 percent after leading the Norwegian women to their title defence at the Olympic Games in London and winning the silver medal at the European championship in Serbia in 2012.
Second ranked by 27 percent was Danish born Morten Soubak, who’s Brazilian team made it to the Olympic quarter-final but lost the game there against Hergeirsson’s Norwegian team and who later-on led Brazil to another Pan-American title.
Dragan Adzic finished on the “bronze rank” by 20 percent. He is the Montenegrin hero after a highly successful 2012: First his club team Buducnost Podgorica won the EHF Champions League, then the Montenegrin team first became Olympic silver medallist in London, before taking revenge against Norway to become European champion for the first time in December.
2010 IHF World Coach of the Year, Frenchmen Olivier Krumbholz, finished fourth ranked by 13 percent ahead of Spanish national team coach Jorge Duenas (7 percent), who took the first ever Olympic women’s handball medal for his country, winning bronze in London.
The male team voting:
Valero Rivera, who led Spain to their second ever World Championship gold medal in January 2013 in his home town Barcelona, received 33 percent of all votes and topped Claude Onesta (27 percent) by six percent.
Onesta was the mastermind behind the Olympic gold medal for the French men, who defended their title in London.
Third ranked by 20 percent was Dane Ulrik Wilbek, the defending title holder in this voting, who led the Danish men’s team to the silver medal at the 2013 World Championship in Spain.
Boris Denic (Slovenia), who was the key for the first ever semi-final participation at a World Championship in January, finished fourth by 13 percent ahead of THW Kiel’s coach Alfred Gislason (7 percent), who won the triple (German league, German cup and EHF Champions League) in 2012.
Profiles of the 2012 IHF World Coaches of the Year:
Thorir Hergeirsson (Norway):
Date of birth: 27 April 1964
Nationality: Icelandic
Career: Assistant coach of the Norwegian women’s national team from 2001 to 2009, since 2009 head coach, before coach of men’s club team Elverum and women’s club teams Gjerpen and Naerbo
Success (as head coach): bronze medal at the 2009 World Championship, European champion 2010, World Champion 2011, Olympic champion 2012, European silver medallist 2012, IHF World Coach of the Year 2011
Valero Lopez Rivera (Spain):
Date of birth: 14 February 1953
Nationality: Spanish
Career: first player, then for 21 years coach of FC Barcelona (1984-2005), since 2008 coach of Spanish national team
Success: World Champion 2013, 71 titles on club level with FC Barcelona, including five trophies in the Champions League, Olympic bronze medal 2008, World Championship bronze medal 2011 with Spain
The IHF World Coaches of the Year:
Female teams:
2009: Jewgeny Trefilov (Russia)
2010: Olivier Krumbholz (France)
2011: Thorir Hergeirsson (Norway)
2012: Thorir Hergeirsson (Norway)
Male teams:
2009: Claude Onesta (France)
2010: Claude Onesta (France)
2011: Ulrik Wilbek (Denmark)
2012: Valero Rivera (Spain)