Cairo (AFP)

Danish goalkeeper Niklas Landin and his compatriot gunner Mikkel Hansen, Norwegian mastermind Sander Sagosen, Croatian leader Domagoj Duvnjak, Spanish winger Aleix Gomez: here are the 5 players to watch during the Men's Handball World Cup in Egypt.

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Niklas Landin, completed wall

At 32, the Kiel goalkeeper has just won the only major title missing from his record, the Champions League.

And there is something for it: the Barcelonans ran into a wall, seeing 14 of their shots, or one in three, stopped by the Danish doorman on a cloud (33-28).

With his selection, the best player in the world 2019 has already been European champion (2012), Olympic champion (2016) and world champion (2019).

In great shape, he intends to keep the latter in Cairo.

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Sander Sagosen, King of the North

"King in the North".

This is the nickname, taken from the Game of Thrones series, which was given to the leader of a rapidly rising selection.

A surprise finalist at the 2017 World Cup, Norway confirmed in 2019 with a new silver medal before going for its first European charm, in bronze, thanks to the endless activism of its left-back, new record holder of goals in a Euro (65).

Add to that his 53 assists and you have the player involved in the most goals (118) of this last major tournament.

The 24-year-old phenomenon has been the subject of a scientific study for his vision of the game, and also had flair when he left Paris for Kiel, with which he initially won the Champions League.

Get ready, Sagosen is coming.

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Domagoj Duvnjak, the conductor

If Sagosen was deprived of a first Euro in 2020, it is because of another fresh European champion from Kiel, the Croatian Domagoj Duvnjak, winner of the chiefs fight in an ultra-semi-final. tight, completed in double overtime (29-28).

Frustrated by Spain in the final, the center-half consoled himself with the MVP title.

But at 32, he's still missing a title with Croatia, and time is running out.

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Mikkel Hansen, swan song?

Like Landin, the left-back with the devastating shot won everything with Denmark, reigning over the 2019 World Cup played at home (72 goals including 7 in the final, title of best player in addition).

But the last months of Mikkel Hansen, named best player in the world in 2011, 2015 and 2018, have been frustrating: still no continental coronation with PSG, of which he has been an essential cog since 2012, and an elimination in the first round of the l 'Euro-2020.

Like Duvnjak, the man with the blindfold doesn't have much time (33 years old).

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Aleix Gomez, life ahead of him

At 23, the Barcelona winger embodies the future of a Spanish selection where the thirty-something (Raul Entrerrios, Jorge Maqueda, Adria Figueras, Joan Canellas) will soon pass the baton.

Top scorer in the Champions League final (10 goals) lost by Barça, Gomez will compete on the right with another Catalan, the Parisian Ferran Solé.

© 2021 AFP