30 VELUX EHF Champions League players win medals at Men's EHF EURO 2016

For 17 days, the handball world had its eyes on Poland and the 2016 Men's EHF European Championship which concluded with a sensational German triumph. But now the VELUX EHF Champions League is about to restart after its winter break.

In just eight days (Wednesday 10 February), the pinnacle of European club handball competition will open its gates again, with the clash between HC PPD Zagreb and Paris Saint-Germain in Croatia.

This match will see three Croatian EHF EURO bronze medallists feature for Zagreb and one EHF EURO All Star Team player, Danish left back Henrik Möllgard Jensen (Best Defender), in the squad of PSG.

From the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase, 37 players were on court in Krakow over the final EHF EURO weekend with European champions Germany surprisingly featuring the lowest number with just three of them.

So their 24:17 final victory over Spain is even more impressive, as VELUX EHF Champions League stars including Uwe Gensheimer, Patrick Groetzki (both Rhein Neckar Löwen), Steffen Weinhold, Patrick Wiencek and Christian Dissinger (all THW Kiel) had been ruled out by injuries before or during the tournament in Poland.

Only Tobias Reichmann (Vive Tauron Kielce), Hendrik Pekeler (Rhein Neckar Löwen) and Rune Dahmke (THW Kiel) are Men's EHF EURO 2016 champions from VELUX EHF Champions League clubs. The big, big star of the newly crowned Men's EHF EURO champions will join the elite men's club competition this summer as EHF EURO All Star Team goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, who saved an incredible 48% of all Spanish shots in the final, will join THW Kiel, arriving from HSG Wetzlar.

Men's EHF EURO 2016 runners-up Spain counted on 14 VELUX EHF Champions League players in the final, including the tournament MVP Raul Entrerrios, one of five players from defending VELUX EHF Champions League champions FC Barcelona Lassa. One more will join them this summer, as EHF EURO top scorer Valero Rivera (48 goals) will return from Nantes to the Catalans, where his great career started.

In the EHF EURO top scorer ranking Rivera was two goals ahead of Tobias Reichmann (46), who was awarded the best right wing of the EHF EURO - and who made Polish champions and 2015 VELUX EHF FINAL4 participants Vive Tauron Kielce happy as, like no other club, the team of head coach Talant Dujshebaev is represented in the EHF EURO All Star Team with four players - Reichmann, Manuel Strlek (Croatia, left wing), Michal Jurecki (Poland, left back) and Julen Aguinagalde (Spain, line player), although it is little consolation for the host country, after they missed the final weekend, leaving their home tournament early in seventh place.

SG Flensburg-Handewitt were also celebrating having an All Star Team player in their squad with their Swedish right back Johan Jakobsson. He can be seen on the TV, tablet and computer screens all over Europe in the first ehfTV.com Match of the Week of 2016 on 14 January (19:30 hrs local time), when Flensburg host their northern German rivals THW Kiel. Kiel are the only club who was represented in all four semi-finalists at the 2016 Men's EHF EURO; Dahmke won gold, Joan Canellas silver, Domagoj Duvnjak bronze and Erlend Mamelund finished in fourth position with Norway.

The second Match of the Week will bring together those four Kielce All Star players with EHF EURO champion Pekeler and his Löwen squad on 20 February, 17:30 hrs (local time) in the Kielce cauldron.

20 VELUX EHF Champions League players were part of the bronze final in Poland, won by Croatia (including 13 of their16 players) 31:24 against the Norwegians, who had seven VELUX EHF Champions League players in their squad.

But now Poland is over, so it is time to switch - for both players and fans.