Handball: Andy Schmid: Between FedEx and the Emperor

Andy Schmid has changed over the past few years from a mistaken purchase to probably the best HBL player.Once the 34-year-old’s mentality was hampered, he is now compared with the great personalities of sport.Nevertheless, Schmid only enjoys a shadowy existence in his homeland.SPOX takes a look at the Swiss artist before the firecracker between the Rhine-Neckar Lions and the THW Kiel (Sun., 3 pm in the LIVETICKER).

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“Andy Schmid is the Franz Beckenbauer of handball.” (former lion coach Ola Lindgren)

“He controls everything, does special things not only once, but 20 times in a row” (Veszprem trainer Ljubomir Vranjes)

“Handball God!” (Stefan Kretzschmar)

Andy Schmid is more than “just” one of the best players in the world.His elegant, sleek and intuitive playing style, his overview, his grandiose passes, his speed and the danger of scoring make the Swiss a rare handball player.

The playmaker led the lions to the German championship in the last two years.This season too, the man from Horgen near Zurich is the main reason why Baden’s men are likely to take part in the awarding of the title once again.

You have to be so clear: If you took Schmid out of the team of the lions, the most recent successes would be utopian.The HBL-MVP of the last four years had a start in Mannheim, which has put the hope of a great career in the realm of fables.

“Six or seven years ago, I was considered a mistaken purchase and smiled at, in a handball magazine I was the relegation of the year – and today I am,”says Schmid himself, astonished at the development he has been taking from the Danish club Bjerringbro-Silkeborg to the lions since his move from the Danish club Bjerringbro-Silkeborg in 2010.

But it also went really well after his arrival in Germany.The right-hander came with a lot of premonition, coach Ola Lindgren wanted to have the Swiss.But then the coach had to leave before the start of the season.

His successor Gudmundur Gudmundsson did not know anything about Schmid at first.He hardly played, the lions wanted to get rid of him.However, Schmid did not give up and worked tenaciously on his playing and his long too tender personality.

“You’re still a cat.But you can become a tiger”, his coach at the time, Arno Ehret, had already given him the chance to become a tiger after the U-21 World Championships in Brazil in 2003.

For a long time Schmid was simply too well-behaved – and this can be traced back to his origins:”From head to toe humble”, the 165-times international player once described the mentality of the Swiss in the Tagesanzeiger:”Just don’t attract attention, don’t be special, don’t do anything else than the majority.Otherwise, you’re criticized and suddenly considered arrogant.I’ve been struggling a little bit with that attitude.”

However, Schmid went on to say that he had learned in Germany that people were saying what they could do:”Otherwise, there was nowhere else to go.I’ve found a healthy mixture, stand up and say,”I can play handball.”

Since Nikolaj Jacobsen became coach of the lions in 2014, the team and the Swiss have made another great leap forward.The Dane has known Schmid since his time in Silkeborg, where Jacobsen was a co-trainer and his mentor.

Jacobsen made Schmid captain after leaving Uwe Gensheimer for Paris, long ago he became the coach’s extended arm on the record.For example, when the 1.90-metre man sits on the bench because he is hardly used in defense, Jacobsen often seeks the conversation with his leader to analyse the current situation and choose the right tactics.

It is not always easy with Jacobsen.The 45-year-old is a buddy of the game, off the field.But if it doesn’t run according to his ideas during the game, he can literally flip out.

Schmid often has to act as a sort of lightning conductor at times like these,”Then I could really smack him in the face,”jokes the backroom-centre player:”But it’s probably his best trait that everything is forgotten after the game.Not all trainers can switch so quickly.”

Schmid is the undisputed star among lions.Quite a few people even say that he is the best handball player in the world.In the media he is referred to as “Lionel Messi des Handballs” or “Roger Federer of handball”.

“I know that I’m not the best player in the world,”says Schmid:”In football you can probably decide whether Ronaldo or Messi, one of them is the best.But in handball?There are Champions League, European Championship and World Cup titles – the best players compete for these trophies.And I’m not in it.”

Schmid would never sign this because he is too ambitious.But the fact that Switzerland is not involved in major tournaments may also be an advantage for him.While other world-class players with the national team often squander their last grains, Schmid can breathe deeply on a regular basis.

However, it is not exactly a luxury to be a handball player from Switzerland.After all, this sport is of no importance to the Swiss Confederates.When Schmid talks about his sport in the Swiss media, he has to add – when he mentions the name Nikola Karabatic – that this is a Frenchman from Paris Saint-Germain.

“Unfortunately, my sport has little reputation in Switzerland,”says Schmid:”I walk through the city and hardly anyone turns around.I can act the same way I did ten years ago.If I were a footballer, there would be something about me in the newspaper almost every day.Okay, sometimes I wish I could get more recognition.”

Schmid believes that this is another reason why the comparison with his compatriot Roger Federer is so far behind.However, these comparisons refer to the fact that Schmid – in spite of his increased self-confidence – is still a down-to-earth person without any kind of stardom.

“I don’t have a consultant, negotiate my own contracts and don’t like to talk about money with clubs.I don’t like this discussion.I have achieved a reward that I would never have even dared to dream of ten years ago.I am happy with it, but almost happier with the status I have in the team, in the club, in the region.It sounds a bit kitschy and is still the truth,”says Schmid.

That may be one of the reasons why he is still playing with the lions and still has a treaty there until 2020.There would have been the opportunity for a change.FC Barcelona, for example, was already showing its interest in Denmark at the time.

“If we hadn’t had children, a change would have been conceivable.Barcelona or Paris would have irritated me.A move, however, requires a tremendous amount of energy.And I know how I work: If I don’t feel comfortable, if the woman is not happy, if the little one doesn’t understand the language, then there are too many changes.And I don’t want to impose them on myself or my family,”says Schmid.

He would rather remain – possibly forever – a lion.It’s not only Schmid who knows what he has.The club has also long since realised how lucky the transfer was seven years ago.