World Cup Qualification
Handball star Andy Schmid: The pioneer wants to know again
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Andy Schmid shaped Swiss handball like no other. Now the 38-year-old wants to make it to another World Cup with the national team. But it shouldn’t be over for the big playmaker after 2023 either.
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Andy Schmid took part in the 2020 European Championship and the 2021 World Cup with the Swiss national team. Can you qualify again?
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The end is near. Twelve more games and then it’s over. And it happens what seemed unimaginable for a long time: Andy Schmid will no longer be a Bundesliga handball player.
Schmid had directed the Rhein-Neckar Löwen since 2010. He could have stayed, but he recently decided that this season will be his last in Mannheim. In the coming season he will play at home again, with HC Kriens-Lucerne.
–In the Rhein-Neckar Löwen jersey, Andy Schmid was voted the most valuable player in the league five years in a row. A brand that is unmatched.
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During the years in Germany, Schmid has achieved what many colleagues dream of. He has shaped his sport in such a way that the relationship has become symbiotic. When you think of handball, Andy Schmid comes to mind. His mostly severe look in the always youthful looking face. The pragmatic short haircut. The camisole with the two on the back. And above all the exuberant handball skills.
One like Roger Federer
This Schmid is an “exception”, says the journalist and handball historian Werner Reimann. Local handball has never had anyone like him to offer. His unmistakable shots, extremely unpleasant for goalkeepers, are world-class. Likewise the game intelligence, the legendary allusions to the circle. Moreover, with Schmid everything seems to be in flux. He celebrates an enduring elegance that most closely resembles that of Roger Federer in Swiss sport. Schmid also shares a fate with Federer that overtakes everyone, but is all the more mercilessly negotiated in public with an athlete: he is getting older.
–Elegant like few others: Andy Schmid’s game is incomparable.
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Schmid will be celebrating his 39th birthday at the end of August. By then he will know if he will be represented at the World Cup in Poland and Sweden next January. This Thursday (from 7.50 p.m. on SRF 2) Schmid, the captain, meets Portugal with Switzerland. If the team wins these two legs, they will have the Netherlands ahead of them in the next qualifying round. If she fails against the Portuguese, the dream of the World Cup will be shattered before it has even taken on concrete form.
World Cup qualification: The starting position for the Nati
In the first qualifying round for the 2023 World Cup, Michael Suter’s team was drawn to Portugal, which they thought was their strongest opponent. This Thursday (from 7.50 p.m. live on SRF 2) the Swiss national handball team meets the Portuguese away in Guimarães. The second leg takes place on Sunday (from 2.20 p.m. live on SRF 2) in Winterthur. If Switzerland prevail after these two games, they will meet the Netherlands in the second and final qualifying round (week 11-17 April). If the national team loses against Portugal, they will only be spectators at the World Cup finals in Poland and Sweden. (early)
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Schmid also has Euro 2024 in Germany in mind
Schmid reluctantly answers the question of whether this will be his last chance to take part in the World Cup again. “As long as I’m actively involved in club handball, I want to play in the national team,” he says. Superficially, he makes it dependent on a “combination of joy, health and performance” for how long he continues his career. In addition to the World Cup, he has the Euro in mind, which will take place in Germany in 2024. Could there be a more appropriate dernière for someone like him? “I’m sure I’ll be there until a possible European Championship. Then we’ll see how it goes.”
Viewed soberly, the playful horizon will not extend far beyond that. Certainly Schmid is first and foremost an offensive player, in defense he usually goes to the wing position, where duels are rare and wear and tear is less. But even his body is not immune to the exertions of top-class sport.
Schmid showed how a great career can be achieved
When chronicler Reimann speaks of Schmid as an exceptional phenomenon, he also means his work as a pioneer. It was Schmid who early on subordinated everything in life to passion and found his way into the Bundesliga via the additional loop in Denmark. In handball, which many in Switzerland practice on the side, Schmid was one of the first to dare to take up the sport as a main occupation. “He showed others that it could work,” says Reimann. Today a handful of Swiss are playing abroad, soon there will be around ten.
–Swiss players like Jonas Schelker (far left) have followed Schmid’s example: The cadet playmaker will play for HSG Wetzlar in the Bundesliga next season.
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Schmid still wants to remain a pioneer, he emphasizes that handball should continue to have priority. There are other things of value as well. He is also drawn back to Switzerland so that the family can put down roots. Schmid is married and has two sons, Lio and Levi, with his wife Therese. He also missed countless weddings and celebrations during his time in Germany. It has to be made up for.
But now Schmid is focusing on continuing to strive for the maximum in national dress. “We’ve known since we took part in tournaments in 2020 and 2021 that we can beat anyone on a good day,” says Schmid.
And everything else that comes next recedes into the background.
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