Netherlands men's national handball team

The Netherlands national handball team is the national handball team of Netherlands and is controlled by the Netherlands Handball Association. Unlike the very successful women's team, The Netherlands men's team qualified only once for the World Championships (1961) and three times for the European Championships (2020, 2022 and 2024). For the 2023 World Men's Handball Championship The Netherlands received a wildcard and reached the Main Round finishing 14th overall.

Netherlands
Information
Nickname	Golden Boys
Association	Netherlands Handball Association
Coach	Staffan Olsson
Assistant coach	Gerrie Eijlers Wong Wai
Most caps	Lambert Schuurs (312)
Colours
Results
World Championship
Appearances	2 (First in 1961)
Best result	11th (1961)
European Championship
Appearances	3 (First in 2020)
Best result	10th (2022)
Last updated on 28th December 2023.

The team is steadily closing the gap with the leading European teams. In only their second ever appearance at EHF EURO 2022 the Dutch men's team won three matches and drew one. The Dutch did qualify for the Main Round as well and finished as 10th overall.

Competitive record

World Championship

World Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1938	did not qualify
1954
1958
1961	Preliminary round	11	2	0	0	2	18	54
1964	did not qualify
1967
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
/ 2019
2021
/ 2023	Main round	14	6	3	0	3	177	165
// 2025	Future events
2027
/ 2029
// 2031
Total	2/32	–	8	3	0	5	195	219

European Championship

European Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1994	did not qualify
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
// 2020	Preliminary round	17th	3	1	0	2	80	94
/ 2022	Main round	10th	7	3	1	3	200	215
2024	Main round	12th	7	2	1	4	224	222
// 2026	Future events
// 2028
Total	3/18	–	17	6	2	9	504	531

Team

Current squad

Squad for the 2024 Men's European Handball Championship.

Head coach: Staffan Olsson

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 1 GK Bart Ravensbergen (1993-03-14) 14 March 1993 1.90 m 105 16 Frisch Auf Göppingen 3 CB/LB Ivar Stavast (1998-01-13) 13 January 1998 1.91 m 44 57 HC Elbflorenz Dresden 4 RB Janik van Zundert (2002-09-08) 8 September 2002 1.91 m 3 0 Bevo HC 5 LW Rutger ten Velde (1997-03-05) 5 March 1997 1.78 m 66 183 TuS Nettelstedt-Lübbecke 6 LB/CB Niko Blaauw (2002-01-15) 15 January 2002 1.90 m 12 3 VfL Lübeck-Schwartau 7 LB Robin Schoenaker (1995-08-23) 23 August 1995 1.98 m 56 8 Sporting Pelt 11 RB Iso Sluijters (1990-07-24) 24 July 1990 1.92 m 115 200 GC Amicitia Zürich 13 P Samir Benghanem (1993-12-10) 10 December 1993 1.94 m 68 126 Green Park/Handbal Aalsmeer 14 RW Bobby Schagen (1990-01-13) 13 January 1990 1.90 m 136 410 TBV Lemgo 15 P Lars Kooij (2000-08-11) 11 August 2000 1.99 m 19 29 TV Emsdetten 17 LW Kaj Geenen (2003-05-06) 6 May 2003 1.84 m 15 10 VfL Lübeck-Schwartau 20 RB/RW Niels Versteijnen (2000-02-03) 3 February 2000 2.00 m 44 85 TBV Lemgo 21 P Martijn Kleijkers (2001-02-22) 22 February 2001 1.88 m 4 4 Limburg Lions 22 CB Luc Steins (1995-03-22) 22 March 1995 1.73 m 110 311 Paris Saint-Germain 23 LB Jorn Smits (1992-09-03) 3 September 1992 1.93 m 70 97 Lemvig-Thyborøn Håndbold 27 RW Alec Smit (1999-05-15) 15 May 1999 1.82 m 56 66 SønderjyskE Elite 28 P Tim Claessens (1999-01-09) 9 January 1999 1.97 m 16 5 Achilles Bocholt 30 GK Arjan Versteijnen (2000-02-03) 3 February 2000 1.93 m 27 1 Bevo HC 33 CB Thomas Houtepen (2002-05-15) 15 May 2002 1.83 m 11 10 TBV Lemgo 77 CB Dani Baijens (1998-05-05) 5 May 1998 1.82 m 79 213 HSV Hamburg

Extended team

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 8 P Evert Kooijman (1996-01-28) 28 January 1996 1.96 m 42 36 KRAS/Volendam 31 RB Kay Smits (1997-03-31) 31 March 1997 1.85 m 80 368 SG Flensburg-Handewitt 34 RB Tom Jansen (1998-06-08) 8 June 1998 1.99 m 29 49 VfL Gummersbach 38 RW Rob Schmeits (1994-06-11) 11 June 1994 1.85 m 6 6 KEMBIT/LIONS

External links

• Official website
• IHF profile