The Netherlands national handball team is the national

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

team of

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and is controlled by the

Netherlands Handball Association The Netherlands Handball Association () (NHV) is the national Handball association in Netherlands. NHV organizes team handball within Dutch and represents the Dutch handball internationally. The Association is a member of the International Handbal ...

. Unlike the very successful

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

, The Netherlands men's team qualified just twice for the World Championships (

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

). For the

2023 World Men's Handball Championship The 2023 World Men's Handball Championship, IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 28th such event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Poland and Sweden from 11 to 29 January 2023. Denmark men's national handba ...

The Netherlands received a wildcard and reached the Main Round finishing 14th overall. The team improved this result in the

event to a 12th place in the final ranking. The current squad lead by starplayers

Luc Steins Luc Steins (born 22 March 1995) is a Dutch professional handball player for Paris Saint-Germain and the Dutch national team. He represented the Netherlands at the 2020 and 2022 European Men's Handball Championship. He was in the all-star team o ...

and Kay Smits is steadily closing the gap with the leading European teams by qualifying three consecutive times for the European Championships (

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

). 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

European Championship

Team

Current squad

Squad for the

2025 World Men's Handball Championship The 2025 IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 29th such event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway from 14 January to 2 February 2025. This edition marked the first time the world cha ...

. Head coach:

Staffan Olsson Erik Staffan Olsson (born 26 March 1964) is a Swedish handball coach and former player. Olsson, who always played with no 13, was a left-handed right backcourt player with one of the most feared shots of all the elite players. Later in his care ...

Extended team

References

External links

*
IHF profile
{{National sports teams of the Netherlands Men's national handball teams Handball in the Netherlands National sports teams of the Netherlands