Here we go: DAIKIN HBL season kicks off on Wednesday, promoted team travels to champions

Wednesday, 27 August:

Thursday, 28 August:

• The DHB Cup winners and record champions start against last year's near-relegation candidates: it was only on the last match day that HC Erlangen secured their place in the league after seven wins in 34 games.
• Kiel won the cup but missed out on qualifying for the Champions League, finishing fourth.
• THW narrowly missed out on their 14th Handball Super Cup title on Saturday, losing 33:34 on penalties to Füchse Berlin after leading 27:24 at one stage.
• Iceland's Andri Runarsson, who arrived from Leipzig, is Erlangen's only new signing, five players have left the Franconians, including Austrian international Tobias Wagner (to Limoges/France).
• At THW, there have been changes at the line in particular: Veron Nacinovic (Montpellier) and Lukas Laube (Stuttgart) replace Patrick Wiencek (end of career) and Hendrik Pekeler, who has been
• out with a long-term injury. New goalkeeper Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (from Barcelona) will not be available until the end of the year after tearing his cruciate ligament.
• THW has a perfect record against HCE with 20 wins in 20 games.

Friday, 29 August:

• Two participants in the Lidl Final4 2025 will face each other right at the start – Melsungen were on course for the title for a long time last season, finishing third in the league, losing the cup final to Kiel and coming fourth in the European League. The Lions fell short of their goals, finishing ninth.
• At MT, Hungarian goalkeeping talent Kristof Palasics (from Veszprem) replaces Poland's Adam Morawski, while Olle Forsell Schefvert faces his former club from Mannheim in his first competitive match. MT have also lost Rogerio Moraes (Montpellier), Elvar Örn Jonsson (Magdeburg) and European League top scorer Ian Barrufet (back to Barcelona), among others.
• New coach, new squad is the motto at the Lions: Maik Machulla is starting the season with a completely revamped team, with five regulars (Knorr, Martinovic, Schefvert, Appelgren, Lindenchrone) among a total of nine departures. Replacing them are Mike Jensen and Lukas Sandell from Veszprem, Gino Steenaerts (HC Kriens-Luzern), Haukur Thrastarson (Dinamo Bucharest) and Dani Baijens (Paris Saint-Germain) as Knorr's replacement.
• In 40 previous games, the Lions have won 28 and MT have won 11; last season, both teams won their home games.

• The eighth-placed team from the 2024/25 season hosts the runners-up and Champions League winners.
• The TBV squad has remained almost unchanged, with the biggest name among the new signings being Jan Mudrow, whose father Volker already played in Lemgo. However, the 18-year-old from Braunschweig suffered a cruciate ligament rupture during pre-season and will be out for several months.
• At SC Magdeburg, everything has recently revolved around the goalkeepers: Sergej Hernandez will leave the Champions League winners after this season, Nikola Portner is still suspended for several months – and that is why the transfer of Matej Mandic (from Zagreb), planned for 2026, has already been completed.
• Other new arrivals at SCM include Elvar Örn Jonsson (from Melsungen) and Sebastian Barthold (from Aalborg), while Michael Damgaard (HÖJ Elite/Denmark), among others, has left Magdeburg.
• In the last 20 matches between the two teams, Magdeburg has won 19 times and drawn once, with TBV's last victory dating back to 29 September 2013 (34:33 away win at the GETEC Arena). In 65 matches, SCM has won 42 times and TBV 21 times.

Saturday, 30 August:

• ThSV Eisenach finished the 2024/25 season in eleventh rank, two places and six points ahead of SC DHfK Leipzig.
• Both teams are entering the 2025/26 season with new coaches: In Eisenach, Sebastian Hinze (formerly Rhein-Neckar Löwen) replaced Swiss coach Misha Kaufmann (now Stuttgart), while in Leipzig, Raul Alonso (formerly Kiel and Erlangen, most recently in Bitola in North Macedonia) took over from Runar Sigtryggsson.
• And both clubs had to let DHB national players move to SG Flensburg-Handewitt: DAIKIN HBL top scorer Marko Grgic left Eisenach, playmaker Luca Witzke left Leipzig.
• In the Leipzig goal, former Kiel player Tomas Mrkva replaces Norwegian Kristian Saeverås, who moved to Göppingen, while in Eisenach, Hinze starts with a revamped team with nine new signings and eight departures.
• Eisenach has won three of the last four DAIKIN HBL matches of the two teams, with the last encounter ending in a draw. The Thuringians also knocked the Saxons out of the cup last season.

• Both teams had set their sights higher last season – HSG Wetzlar finished just two points ahead of relegated Bietigheim, while SG Flensburg-Handewitt came fifth but defended their European League title after the change of coach from Nicolej Krickau to Ales Pajovic.
• HSG underwent a complete overhaul under new coach Momir Ilic for the new season: nine departures, including veteran Till Klimpke (HOJ in Denmark), were offset by eight new signings. Newly signed goalkeeper Bart Ravensbergen is out for the long term after an injury.
• One departure returns to Wetzlar with SG on the very first match day: Slovenian wing Domen Novak.
• Other new additions to SG include DHB national players Luca Witzke and Marko Grgic, as well as Norwegian Kent Robin Tönnesen (from Paris). In return, SG legend Jim Gottfridsson has left the club for Pick Szeged in Hungary, Mads Mensah has returned to Denmark and Kay Smits now plays for Gummersbach.
• Wetzlar has not beaten Flensburg since 15 September 2015, suffering 17 defeats and two draws. Overall, the SG has a record of 46:2 wins.

Sunday, 31 August:

• Füchse Berlin are starting the new DAIKIN HBL season as champions and hunted for the first time, while Bergischer HC are returning to the DAIKIN HBL after just one year following an almost perfect season as second division champions.
• The Berliners defended their Handball Super Cup title with a 34:33 victory over Kiel after a penalty shootout.
• Five-time Champions League winner Aitor Arino (FC Barcelona) and Norwegian Tobias Gröndahl (GOG/Denmark) are the only new additions to the German champions, where Paul Drux and Tobias Reichmann ended their careers.
• U21 world champion Sören Steinhaus (back from Dormagen) is the best-known new signing for BHC, which has been left by Icelanders Tjörvi Gislason and Arnor Vidarsson as well as former national player Djibril M'Bengue.
• In the last match at the end of May 2024, the 29:30 home defeat against BHC meant that the Füchse had to finally tick off the championship. The ‘Bergischen Löwen’ won two of the last three duels, but Berlin leads overall with 15:6 victories.

• Two traditional German handball teams will face each other at the start of the season at the promoted team's home ground: GWD Minden secured its promotion on the last match day of the 2nd HBL in a duel with Hüttenberg, while FRISCH AUF! Göppingen finished the previous season in twelfth place.
• Six departures – including Adam Nyfjäll (TBV Lemgo Lippe) – are offset by six new signings at GWD, such as Tibor Ivanisevic (Frisch Auf Göppingen).
• Göppingen's most important summer transfers were Martin Hanne (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf) and Kristian Saeverås (SC DHfK Leipzig), while Josip Sarac (Tatabanya KC/HUN), Bart Ravensbergen (HSG Wetzlar) and Tibor Ivanisevic (GWD Minden) have left the Swabians.
• At FRISCH AUF!, coach Benjamin Matschke has also been promoted to become sports director, while Christian Schoene is now focusing on his job as youth coordinator.
• The two teams are facing for the 53rd time in the HBL, with Göppingen celebrating 32 victories and Minden 15. In the 2022/23 season, when they last faced each other, Minden remained undefeated, following a 29:26 away win with a 27:27 draw.

• TVB Stuttgart, in third-last place, narrowly avoided relegation, while Hamburg finished the season in tenth place.
• Stuttgart's new head coach Misha Kaufmann (who came from Eisenach) has to integrate a total of seven new signings, including goalkeeper Daniel Rebmann (from Bietigheim), who replaces Samir Bellahcene (to Bucharest). Three Spanish players – Jorge Serrano, Daniel Fernandez and Bruno Reguart – have returned to their home country.
• Two key players – Zoran Ilic (Wisla Plock/Poland) and Leif Tissier (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf) – have left HSVH, while three new signings have arrived from Denmark.