Goalkeepers dominate adidas 'Best Player of the Match' awards

It is the final day of the 24^th Men’s Handball World Championships in Qatar with the capital city Doha hosting 86 matches in three different venues so far and just two matches remaining.

Official partner of the International Handball Federation, adidas, award a special watch to the 'Best Player of the Match' after every match, decided by the IHF officials at the game.

Simon Cartwright, Global Head of adidas Handball said: “adidas has a long and proud history of performance and excellence within the sporting world and particularly handball.

"The ‘adidas Best Player of the Match’ award recognises this excellence and rewards the player who performs to the very highest standards for their team."

Journalist Tomislav Lauric compiled a list of all 86 winners so far and found some interesting results.

In many of those matches the adidas ‘Best Player of the Match’ has been taken by a goalkeeper 29 times. The goalkeepers of the two finalists - Danijel Saric of Qatar and Thierry Omeyer of France - have both featured four-times each whilst both goalkeepers of two countries won the award;  Slovenia (Prost, Skof) and the Russian Federation (Levshin, Bogdanov).

Awarded goalkeepers are:

4 times: Danijel Saric (QAT), Thierry Omeyer (FRA)

3 times: Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (ESP), Petr Stochl (CZE)

2 times: Nikola Marinovic (AUT), Mirko Alilovic (CRO)

1 time: Primoz Prost (SLO), Mattias Andersson (SWE), Jannick Green (DEN), Karim Handawy (EGY), Hamza Majed (TUN), Gorazd Skof (SLO), Carsten Lichtlein (GER), Badim Bogdanov (RUS), Igor Levshin (RUS), Saeid Heidari Rad (IRI), Slawomir Szmal (POL).

Left wingers have been the third-lowest awarded players in Qatar with just seven picking it up; Dejan Manaskov (MKD) and Uwe Gensheimer (GER) were honoured twice, while Felipe Ribeiro (BRA), Jonas Källman (SWE), Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson, Matthias Musche (GER) and Ayatallah El Khomini Hamoud (ALG) received the award once. Germany were the only nation with both left wingers awarded.

In contrast to that, no teams  had both left backs awarded, in fact, only five of them were chosen.

Rafael Capote (QAT) and PSG superstar Mikkel Hansen (DEN) were  honoured twice, while Dusko Celica (BIH), Messaoud Berkous (ALG) and Michal Jurecki (POL) got awarded once.

European centre-backs dominated compared to the other continents. Seven of them were honoured during the tournament with Joan Canellas (ESP), Barys Pukhouski (BLR); Dimitry Zhitnikov (RUS), Aron Palmarsson (ISL), Nikola Karabatic (FRA), Rasmus Lauge (DEN) and Igor Karacic (CRO) all receiving the award. Canellas took the award three times, while Pukhouski was awarded twice.

In contrast to Europe, Asia and Africa had no centre backs take the award in Qatar, while South America was the only continent except Europe to have awarded players at this position with Joao Silva (BRA) who was nominated once, and the Argentina brothers Sebastian and Diego Simonet  - the only nation with two centre backs awarded.

Line players were by far the lowest awarded position at Qatar 2015. Despite having tough 'fights' with opponents in every single match, only Cedric Sorhaindo (FRA), Kaim Szyprzak (POL) and Hassan Aljanabi (KSA) managed to be the best individuals of the match.

Right-backs were the second highest awarded position as the left-handed shooters were given 18 awards in total.

Five of them  were nominated twice: Ahmed Elahmar (EGY), Steffen Weinhold (GER), Kiril Lazarov (MKD), Zarko Markovic (QAT) and Amine Bannour (TUN) while others were honoured once: Krzystof Lijewski (POL), Kim Andersson (SWE), Andrzej Rojewski (POL), Marko Kopljar (CRO), Alexander Petersson (ISL) and Rodrigo Salinas (CHI).

Poland were the only team to have two right-backs awarded during the tournament.

Dragan Gajič (SLO) who will very likely finish top scorer of the tournament, was the only right winger to be honoured twice with seven more players in this position given the award: Ivan Cupic (CRO), Federco Pizzato (ARG), Zlatko Horvat (CRO), Patrick Groetzki (GER), Jaleleddiene Touati (TUN), Valentine Porte (FRA) and Lasse Svan (DEN) - Croatia is the only participating nation with both right wingers were awarded in Qatar.

The very interesting fact is that all of the participating nations have at least one awarded player, while Qatar is the only one having awarded player in every single game played in front of their fans.

ADIDAS BEST PLAYER OF THE MATCH AWARDS BY NATION:

National teams - Total awards
8 - QAT

7 - GER, FRA

6 - ESP, CRO

5 - POL, DEN

4 - TUN, SLO, MKD

3 - SWE, RUS, ISL, EGY, CZE, ARG

2 - BRA, BLR, AUT, ALG

1 - KSA, IRI, CHI, BIH

Best players, despite their team losing:

17           TUN – CRO          25:28 (13:14)      Amine Bannour (TUN)

40           QAT – ESP           25:28 (10:8)         Zarko Markovic (QAT)

46           ALG – FRA           26:32 (12:19)      Messaoud Berkous (ALG)

66           ISL – DEN             25:30 (10:16)      Alexander Petersson (ISL)

69           CHI – IRI               31:32 (15:17)      Rodrigo Salinas (CHI)

72           CZE – RUS            32:30 (16:15)      Badim Bogdanov (RUS)

73           CHI – ALG            30:28* (10:16)    Ayatallah El Khomini Hamoud (ALG)

* - after shootout

NATIONS WITH TWO AWARDED PLAYERS BY POSITION:

Goalkeepers: Slovenia (Prost, Skof), Russian Federation (Levshin, Bogdanov)

Left wings: Germany (Gensheimer, Musche)

Centre backs: Argentina (Sebastian and Diego Simonet)

Right backs: Poland (K. Lijewski, Rojewski)

Right wings: Croatia (Cupic, Horvat)

FULL LIST OF ADIDAS BEST PLAYER OF THE MATCHES

* - after shootout