When Füchse Berlin won in Skjern: Mathias Gidsel on a home visit

It has seldom been so quiet in the recent past when Mathias Gidsel has scored a goal. Especially not in Denmark. But after the national player stole the ball and after a short sprint had successfully placed the game device in the goal, it was quiet. Sure, Gidsel was a guest in Skjern with the foxes as part of the European League, but the 23-year-old had counted on at least some applause in his native town. However, there was no bonus for the Danish world champion, who was also named the most valuable player in the tournament and the best shooter.

Not even from his mother Helle. “When the game starts, I know which side I’m on. I always cheer for Skjern. I’m green at heart,” she had already announced in advance – and kept her word. As the person responsible for VIP support and other marketing tasks for the club, which she has been involved with for years, she stood behind her employer that evening, just as she had done several times before when her son was a guest with GOG Gudme.

Mathias Gidsel, whose father works for Skjern Handbold’s main sponsor, seemed to motivate him all the more. After just 46 seconds he had already earned his first yellow card, and less than a minute later the game scene described at the beginning followed, which was associated with the first goal for the Berliners. “If you’re from Skjern and you spent a lot of your childhood here, then it’s a very special game,” said Gidsel, who took his first handball steps in the very arena where he now had to play against the crowd.

Despite the around 3000 Danish fans who showed up, Gidsel and his teammates maneuvered convincingly through the atmospheric hall. Not least because the left-hander scored four times in the first quarter of an hour. But sometimes he wanted too much. Sometimes his passes were too risky, sometimes his conclusion was too hasty – as was the case with his neighbors with times, so that the six-goal lead of the Berlin team was lost in the 51st minute at 22:22 before the pendulum swung again.

“We started really well and were particularly convincing on the defensive. But things got a little more complicated in the second half. Nevertheless, we’re going back to Berlin with a five-goal advantage. That’s a good starting position for the second leg in a week,” Gidsel was satisfied with the 28:23 final score. And although he made a few more mistakes than usual, the backcourt player proved that the trust that the Midtjylland region had placed in him at the time was not unfounded.

Gidsel was once considered too weak for professional handball

Because Skjern’s current head coach Claus Hansen also coached Gidsel once. It was he who encouraged the then, as now, frail player to go his own way, after many had previously labeled him as physically unfit for handball. “Mathias is a reminder to anyone working in talent development that you have to be very careful about judging or stigmatizing anyone,” Hansen said recently of his one-time protégé.

Gidsel eventually found his way into the Danish national team via GOG Gudme, and at the age of 24 already has two world titles, a silver at the Olympics and a bronze at the European Championships to his credit. And if he continues to celebrate such successes with the foxes, the next titles at club level should not be long in coming.

The Berliners are the only team to have won all their games in the European League so far and with the win in Skjern they took another step towards the quarter-finals. Before the decisive second leg, however, the prestige duel at THW Kiel on Sunday (2 p.m. / Sky) in the Bundesliga is imminent. And then Gidsel should keep their fingers crossed for a few more people from home – even if only from afar.