Heiner Brand

Heiner Brand
Personal information
Born (1952-07-26) July 26, 1952
Gummersbach, West Germany
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position Pivot
Club information
Youth clubs
1959–87 VfL Gummersbach
Senior clubs
1987–91
1992–94
1994–96		 VfL Gummersbach
SG Wallau-Massenheim
VfL Gummersbach
National team
1997–2011 German national team

Heiner Brand (born July 26, 1952 in Gummersbach) is a former West German handball player. He was the Germany national handball team coach from 1997 to 2011. He is the only person who has won the world handball championship, both as a player (in 1978) and as a coach (in 2007).

Career as player

Heiner Brand joined at the age of seven the handball club VfL Gummersbach. He was with that club six times German champion (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1982 and 1983) and won four times the DHB-Pokal (1978, 1979, 1982 and 1983). He also became with that club internationally successful (European Cup winner in 1978 and 1979, European National Championship winner in 1974 in 1983, Super cup winner in 1979 and 1983, IHF cup winner in 1982).

Heiner Brand was also successful in the Germany national handball team, where he played a total of 131 games and scored 231 goals, including one penalty throw. In 1976, he was a member of the West German team that finished fourth in the Olympic tournament in Montreal. He played all six matches and scored twelve goals. In 1978, he was the World champion at the World Men's Handball Championship. His first two international goals he scored in his first game for Germany was on July 1, 1974 in Holon against Israel.

Career as coach

Heiner Brand

Heiner Brand has been a long-time coach for VfL Gummersbach (1987–91 and 1994–96). In between, he was the coach for SG Wallau-Massenheim (1992–94). Even before becoming a club coach, he was an assistant coach of the German national team (1984–87), in which he became the fuul-time coach on January 1, 1997. At the beginning of the new millennium, he raised the national team to the top. After the vice European Championship in 2002 and the vice World Cup in 2003, the DHB selection won in 2004 the European Championship and the same year the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens.

It was announced on October 24, 2007 that Brand's contract of the National team with the DHB would be extended until June 30, 2013. However, it was announced on May 16, 2011 that his post of national coach would expire on June 30, 2011. The results were the tenth place at the 2010 European Championship and the eleventh place at the 2011 World Championship. It was the worst result in the history of the German National Championship.[1] Since 1. Juli 2011 Martin Heuberger is the successor to Heiner Brand. Heuberger has since 1. November 2004 been Assistant to Heiner Brand und Co-coach of the German National Handball team.

Personal life

Brand is married and has two children. He has two older brothers named Klaus (born 1942) and Jochen (born 1944). Both also played for the German national handball team.

His trademark since the 1970s is his bushy walrus moustache.

Success as coach

References

  1. ↑ "Heiner Brand tritt im Juni zurück". Zeit Online (in German). May 16, 2011.
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