24 EHF Champions League winners on court in Cologne

Two dozens of players, who have lifted the EHF Champions League trophy at least once in their career, are heading for the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4. In total, these players have 49 titles on their tally– with Siarhei Rutenka (FC Barcelona Intersport) in lead by five titles with three different clubs, ahead of Thierry Omeyer (THW Kiel), who won four trophies with two clubs, and five players, who won the title three times each.

By looking upon the previous winners, the number of players involved in this season’s highlighter is various:
11 players, who won the trophy in 2011 with FC Barcelona Intersport are back on track, followed by ten players each of the THW Kiel squads from 2010 and 2012. Four players are on court this weekend, who had won the trophy in 2007 (THW Kiel) and the same number of title holders from 2008 and 2009 editions (each Ciudad Real). Both the success of Ciudad Real in 2006 and of RK Celje in 2004 are represented by two players. And also one “survivor” of the 2004 (Montpellier, Thierry Omeyer) and one of the 2005 winning team (Barcelona, Víctor Tomás) is in Cologne this year.

The list of trophy holders who made it to the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4:
Siarhei Rutenka (FC Barcelona Intersport, before: Celje, Ciudad Real) – 5 titles (2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011)
Thierry Omeyer (THW Kiel, before Montpellier) – 4 (2003, 2007, 2010, 2012)
Marcus Ahlm (THW Kiel) – 3 (2007, 2010, 2012)
Dominik Klein (THW Kiel) – 3 (2007, 2010, 2012)
Christian Zeitz (THW Kiel) – 3 (2007, 2010, 2012)
Uroš Zorman (Vive Targi Kielce, before Celje, Ciudad Real) – 3 (2004, 2008, 2009)
Arpad Sterbik (FC Barcelona Intersport, before Ciudad Real) – 3 (2006, 2008, 2009)
Víctor Tomás (FC Barcelona Intersport) – 2 (2005, 2011)
Viran Morros (FC Barcelona Intersport, before Ciudad Real) – 2 (2008, 2009)
Momir Ilić (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Filip Jícha (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Daniel Narcisse (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Andreas Palicka (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Aron Palmarsson (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Christian Sprenger* (THW Kiel) – 2 (2010, 2012)
Aitor Ariño (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Raúl Entrerríos (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Juanín Garcia (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Magnus Jernemyr (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Jesper Nøddesbo (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Albert Rocas (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Danijel Šarić (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Daniel Sarmiento (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)
Cedric Sorhaindo (FC Barcelona Intersport) - 1 (2011)

*Sprenger was a player of SC Magdeburg in 2002, when they became Champions league winner, but at that time he only played in the youth and second team