The 2025 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship delivered records, fantastic matches and one of the best finals ever in a global handball flagship event, with Germany taking the title, after a dramatic 41:40 win over Spain, after penalties.
But what are the main takeaways after Egypt 2025, a competition which showed that handball’s future is on safe hands.
A historic moment unfolded at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship in Cairo as a record-breaking 22,150 spectators filled the stands for the quarter-final clash between Egypt and Spain, eventually won by Spain, 31:29, after a fantastic comeback in the last 12 minutes of the match.
This remarkable achievement underlines both the growing appeal of youth handball and Egypt’s unique ability to mobilize passionate support for the sport. Never before in the history of the competition has a youth handball match drawn such a crowd, a testament not only to the quality of the event’s organization but also to the strong handball culture that has developed in Egypt in recent years.
For the players, particularly the young talents on both sides, competing in front of such a large audience provided an unforgettable experience that reflects the sport’s potential for vibrant atmospheres even beyond senior competitions. The competition saw seven matches with over 3,000 spectators attending – a record for an edition of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, which proves how popular handball is around the Globe and how an event can galvanise the support from spectators.
The only edition when the average number of goals scored was over 60 goals at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship was Bahrain 2007, when the 16 participating teams combined for 3,006 goals, an average of 60.1 goals per match. In the previous two editions, in 2019 and in 2023, the average number of goals scored per match was 55.7 and 57.5 goals per match respectively.
The evolution of handball and it becoming a sport with a faster pace, was on display at Egypt 2025, where the 32 participating teams combined for 6,922 goals, or an average of 64.09 goals per match. Therefore, the improvement from 2023 was by 6.5 goals per match and the record was beaten by a whopping 4 goals per match average, with the highest-scoring match being the final between Spain and Germany, which combined for 81 goals, with extra-time and penalties included. Overall, there were 21 matches with at least 70 goals scored, roughly a fifth of all the matches in the competition.
The final between Spain and Germany was also one for the ages, the maiden one in the history of the men’s global handball flagship competition in the senior, junior and youth categories where the teams were finally separated on penalties, after 80 dramatic minutes, where both Spain and Germany had the chance to win, but eventually the deadlock was not broken.
The lead changed hands in regular time twice in the last 10 minutes, but the two sides were locked, 26:26, after 60 minutes. Germany took a two-goal lead after 64 minutes, but after the first extra-time, the score was again tied, 31:31. And after 68 minutes, Spain looked to have the world title in the bag, leading 36:33, only for a collapse to see Germany tie the score, 36:36 and push the match to penalties, where they won, 41:40, missing only two of their seven shots.
As the pendulum swung, the audience was gripped in its seats and even though this was only a match for Under-19 teams, it surely captured the essence and the unpredictability that handball can bring on the court at any given stage, in every match.
Only three teams in history have completed the senior-junior-youth treble at the IHF Men’s World Championship. France were first, in 2015, securing both the Junior and Youth world titles. Denmark followed up in 2019, when they secured the gold medal in the senior World Championship at home. And then Spain completed it in 2023, lifting the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship trophy in Croatia.
Now, a fourth team joined this prestigious club: Germany. Having already won the senior title twice and the junior title twice, the European side completed the treble at Egypt 2025, after missing out on their first chance in 2019, when they conceded a 28:32 loss in the final against Egypt.
It was a triumph for a team which did not shine on the court necessarily, rather than following the recipe of team first, individual second which worked out perfectly for Denmark at the 2025 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship. Germany’s top scorer, Jan Grüner, was only 21st in the top goal scorer standings, with 44 goals, an average of 5.5 goals per match. They were also 15th in the scoring charts, with an average of 31.8 goals scored per match, with the improvement coming only after putting 41 past Spain in the penalty- decided final. But defensively they were strong, and overall had the top goalkeeper in Finn Knaack, who saved 35.2% of the shots he faced – 75 out of 213.
Slovenia might have finished only 13th in the competition, but their future looks to be set, with two highly talented players rising to the top in the top goal scorer standings. Aljuš Anžič and Mai Marguč have combined for 132 of their team’s goals in the competition, more than half of the team’s 253 goals, finishing first and second in the top goal scorer standings.
Anžič, who is only 17 years old and will be eligible to play in the next IHF Men’s Youth World Championship and in the next two editions of the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, had already shined at the 2025 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, in Poland, where he was the third best scorer, with 60 goals.
Now, he was selected in the All-Star team as the best left back and was the top goal scorer of the competition, despite playing only seven matches, with 67 goals, two more than his teammate, Marguč. The 17-year-old future star has scored 23 goals in the match against Norway, a record for the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, and had an average of 9.5 goals per match, the second best in the competition, after Norway’s Vetle Mellemstrand Bore.
