Thirty-five minutes after the end of the game, Niklas Landin is still standing there with his goalie in black, a pen in his hand: signing autographs, taking pictures and having a bit of small talk with the fans.
The handball player fulfills many expectations in this respect.
Landin is a stranger to celebrity behavior.
In his actual job, the soon to be 34-year-old Dane did the best he could to win a point in the Champions League against title holders FC Barcelona.
At 30:30 last Thursday, Landin was once again the life insurance of THW Kiel - this Wednesday part two of the European handball "Clásico" follows (8:45 p.m. live on DAZN).
In the conversation, Landin thinks one step further: "It looks like there is some light at the end of the tunnel." He means the injury situation.
The situation at the German record champions seemed to be easing before Eric Johansson (broken hand) and on Monday Steffen Weinhold (torn cruciate ligament) were out.
With his confidence, Landin referred to the long-missing pillars Sander Sagosen and Hendrik Pekeler.
After a broken ankle and a torn Achilles tendon from the previous season, both returned to the floor last week.
Coach Filip Jicha also had to improvise with the outside positions due to a lack of regular players.
Kiel covered these failures with rarely beautiful, mostly successful handball: "Our young people hit it off well," Landin praises, "we managed it well with them." In addition to Johansson, he means Nikola Bilyk, who at the age of 25 finally found the one for him intended lead role.
No case of wrong load control
Four minus points in day-to-day business, reached the round of 16 of the cup – THW only allowed itself to slip up in the Champions League.
The national competition has lost hope that without Sagosen and Pekeler Kiel would suffer so many defeats and be out of the running for the cup.
The malaise was mainly accidents in training or games, mostly collisions, as they are part of handball.
The result is painful, but at least not an indication of poor load control, since it is not a matter of muscular damage.
With a budget of 13.5 million euros, the people of Kiel not only benefit from financial strength that is unique in the league, but also from a good hand with the summer commitments.
Johansson, 22, played outstandingly until he broke his hand, and he performed impressively in the win in Magdeburg.
Handball looks so easy with him: climb up, throw in.
Jicha and sporting director Viktor Szilagyi see a groundbreaking transfer in Johansson.
At present, his new Swedish backcourt colleague Karl Wallinius (23) is still looking for a connection to the game and a feeling for the throw.
But Johansson and Wallinius are important components of the urgent rejuvenation.
Since the THW can also bring in experienced workers thanks to its name, the hall and the salaries, old weak points have been eliminated.
Tomas Mrkva came from Bergisches HC and is a good second goalkeeper.
Petter Överby from Erlangen helped as long as Pekeler was absent and is needed at the circle front and back when Patrick Wiencek needs breaks.
However, the people of Kiel are experiencing a turning point when it comes to hiring young, sought-after players.
longing for home
Parallel to the attitude towards life of people of the same age, handball pros also find that there should be more to life than work.
The work-life balance has to be right.
All clubs face challenges when old values such as identification with the club or everyday life as a professional count less and are lived out more individually.
“We have to adapt like any other company.
Overall, the demands have increased insanely," Szilagyi told the "Kieler Nachrichten".
Added to this is the longing for home: some Scandinavian players sorely missed their loved ones during the pandemic and found the separation from grandparents or grandchildren to be a considerable disadvantage.
This is one of the reasons why some of them will soon return to their home countries - and this is not just a Kiel phenomenon.
It will be decisive how the THW copes with the departure of Niklas Landin to Aalborg next summer.
French national goalkeeper Vincent Gérard will replace him for a limited period of one year.
From the 2024/25 series, the name of Benjamin Buric from Flensburg has stuck.
But anyone who speaks to Landin understands that this is really the very distant future: "Please don't ask me about the second half of the season," he says, "we have so many games until New Year's Eve, I have no idea what else is going to happen.
All I know is that we want to win them all over.” For THW Kiel, this is exactly what it's all about: transferring this ambition from the here and now, embodied by Landin, Duvnjak, Wiencek and Co., to the new generation.