Wolff and Lunde claim the maiden EHF Players of the Month award

Andreas Wolff and Katrine Lunde were named the premiere EHF Players of the Month on Thursday as the two iconic goalkeepers topped all other players on European courts in January for the brand new award.

Wolff proved to be one of the key factors for Germany in their surprising golden run at the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland. Together with German defence the goalkeeper from HSG Wetzlar limited favoured Spain to just 17 goals in the championship final (24:17) and collected the tournament record 81 saves in eight matches. He ranked second in the saving efficiency (36 %) and was also announced the best goalkeeper of the EHF EURO 2016.

Norwegian goalkeeper Lunde was instrumental for her Russian club Rostov-Don in the Women's EHF Champions League as she steered the competition's newcomers to maintain their perfect run (eight wins out of eight matches) with two main round victories (at home against FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 23:21 and away at Fleury Loiret Handball 27:22). One of her saves against Ferencvaros made it also to the top five selection of the Main Round 2.

Starting from January 2016 the experts' panel consisiting of EHF websites' correspondents from all over Europe will name the awardees after each calendar month based on players' individual performances in all competitions run by the European Handball Federation in the respective month.

Other men's nominees for EHF Players of the Month were playmaker Sander Sagosen (Norway, Aalborg Handbold), line player Julen Aguinagalde (Spain, Vive Tauron Kielce), left back Antonio Garcia (Spain, MOL-Pick Szeged and right back Johan Jakobsson (Sweden, SG Flensburg-Handewitt).

Three centre backs Ekaterina Ilina (Russia, Rostov-Don), Nycke Groot (Netherlands, Györi Audi ETO KC) and Allison Pineau (France, HCM Baia Mare) together with line player Dragana Cvijic (Serbia, Buducnost) were other top contenders on the women's shortlist.