Netherlands men's national handball team

Netherlands
Information
Nickname	Golden Boys
Association	Netherlands Handball Association
Coach	Staffan Olsson
Assistant coach	Gerrie Eijlers Wong Wai
Most caps	Lambert Schuurs (312)
Colours
1st 2nd
Results
World Championship
Appearances	3 (First in 1961)
Best result	11th (1961)
European Championship
Appearances	4 (First in 2020)
Best result	10th (2022)
Last updated on 28 December 2023.

The Netherlands national handball team is the national handball team of Netherlands and is controlled by the Netherlands Handball Association.

Unlike the very successful women's team, The Netherlands men's team qualified just twice for the World Championships (1961, 2025). For the 2023 World Men's Handball Championship The Netherlands received a wildcard and reached the Main Round finishing 14th overall. The team improved this result in the 2025 event to a 12th place in the final ranking.

The current squad led by starplayers Luc Steins and Kay Smits is steadily closing the gap with the leading European teams by qualifying three consecutive times for the European Championships (2020, 2022 and 2024). 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.

World Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1938	did not qualify
1954
1958
1961	Preliminary round	11	2	0	0	2	18	54
1964	did not qualify
1967
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
/ 2019
2021
/ 2023	Main round	14	6	3	0	3	177	165
// 2025	Main round	12	6	3	1	2	212	200
2027	Future events
/ 2029
// 2031
Total	3/32	–	14	6	1	7	407	419

European Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1994	did not qualify
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
// 2020	Preliminary round	17th	3	1	0	2	80	94
/ 2022	Main round	10th	7	3	1	3	200	215
2024	Main round	12th	7	2	1	4	224	222
// 2026	Main round	15th	3	1	0	2	91	97
// 2028	Future events
2030
2032
Total	4/20	–	20	7	2	11	595	628

Squad for the 2026 European Men's Handball Championship.^[1][2]

Head coach: Staffan Olsson

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 3 CB Ivar Stavast (1998-01-13) 13 January 1998 1.91 m 67 118 HC Elbflorenz 5 LW Rutger ten Velde (1997-03-05) 5 March 1997 1.78 m 89 351 Frisch Auf Göppingen 11 GK Jorick Pol (2004-02-26) 26 February 2004 1.99 m 13 0 TVB Stuttgart 12 GK Matthias Dorgelo (2002-10-31) 31 October 2002 2.00 m 16 2 SønderjyskE Herrehåndbold 14 RW Bobby Schagen (1990-01-13) 13 January 1990 1.90 m 150 452 TBV Lemgo 15 P Lars Kooij (2000-08-11) 11 August 2000 1.99 m 41 96 Bergischer HC 17 LW Kaj Geenen (2003-05-06) 6 May 2003 1.86 m 37 40 HSV Hamburg 20 RB Niels Versteijnen (2000-02-03) 3 February 2000 2.00 m 67 185 TBV Lemgo 21 P Martijn Kleijkers (2001-02-22) 22 February 2001 1.88 m 24 36 Sporting Neerpelt 22 CB Luc Steins (1995-03-22) 22 March 1995 1.73 m 127 370 Paris Saint-Germain 24 P Driek Manders (2004-11-29) 29 November 2004 1.97 m 5 6 HC Bevo 25 LB Destin van Dijk (2001-11-02) 2 November 2001 2.02 m 9 1 Szigetszentmiklósi KSK 26 LB Bram van de Vreede (2007-04-16) 16 April 2007 1.98 m 5 2 ASV Hamm-Westfalen 27 RW Alec Smit (1999-05-15) 15 May 1999 1.82 m 67 84 Aalborg Håndbold 29 RB Marek Skwarczynski (2006-07-22) 22 July 2006 1.92 m 2 0 ATSV Habenhausen 34 RB Tom Jansen (1998-06-18) 18 June 1998 1.99 m 34 52 TuS Ferndorf 77 LB Dani Baijens (1998-05-05) 5 May 1998 1.82 m 102 320 Rhein-Neckar Löwen 97 LB Reinier Taboada (1997-06-02) 2 June 1997 1.92 m 5 11 Benfica

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• IHF profile