Handball: End of career with 28: Escape to freedom

Kim Ekdahl du Rietz plays handball better than ever before. The Swede of the Rhine-Neckar Lions is one of the world’s best players in the left back. In the coming year, he could easily sign a contract with a club of his choice and earn big money. Instead, Ekdahl du Rietz ends his career in summer at the age of just under 28. Why the hell is he doing this?

Kim Ekdahl du Rietz shone through both ears. With arms stretched upwards, the man from Lund in southern Sweden leaped happily through the arena in Mannheim. His lions had defeated THW Kiel 28:19 and thus won the second German championship in a row two matchdays before the end.

It’s the moments when the right-hander seems happy. Like a thoroughbred handball player who can’t imagine any other activity. Like someone who is passionate about his sport and loves it dearly. But the impression is deceptive.

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“Handball doesn’t make me happy anymore. I am satisfied, but that is not enough. That’s why I quit,”said Ekdahl du Rietz to the morning in Mannheim:”I can’t spend my life with something I don’t want to do anymore.”

When the backroom player made his decision public in November 2016, many people showed him respect. But there were also voices that showed less understanding.

Isn’t it ungrateful not to take full advantage of your talent? Isn’t it a damned high level of whining that you don’t want to take part in everyday life as a professional handball player despite your best health and very good earnings?

“It’s not about rationally following my decision,”the 1.94-meter man commented:”It’s what I feel that’s most important. My talent does not oblige me to continue this sport. That’s bullshit in my eyes.”

In order to better understand Ekdahl du Rietz, a look at his life so far helps. The lion with the number 60 started out as a young guy playing handball because his buddies played handball.

He never had the dream of making a living from his sport. Not even the wish:”From the day your hobby becomes your profession and you become a professional handball player, your life changes. Cause you have to make everything right. This is something quite different than a hobby,”said Ekdahl du Rietz:” I somehow slipped into this professional career.

At the age of 16, the then still extremely rancid junior made his first league debut for his home club LUGI HF. The years went by, he got better and better and even made it into the national team.

Nevertheless, there was no thought of leaving Sweden to really get the professional career going. Family, friends, a little handball – Ekdahl du Rietz had everything in Scandinavia.

He received his first wake-up call from former world-class player Kim Andersson. He took the youngster aside and was pissed off,”he said,” I would waste my talent if I didn’t pursue this goal handball pro. He couldn’t understand it at all,”recalls Ekdahl du Rietz.

When he also played a very good World Cup in 2011, the offers from abroad came by themselves. Ekdahl du Rietz decided to switch to HBC Nantes. He played a great season and was hired by the Rhine-Neckar Lions after only one year in France.

After minor start-up difficulties, he also started in the HBL. Ekdahl du Rietz already had the full range on it. Spectacular throws from ten metres, refuelling in one-on-one, defensive work – he can do almost anything.

And he was successful. He won the EHF Cup with the lions in 2013, won the EHF Cup twice, won the silver medal with Sweden at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

But one thought never let him go in all these years. I’ve never really known exactly where I was going in the past few years. That’s why I just kept playing handball. This sport has given me financial security,”said Ekdahl du Rietz.

The fact that this Swede is not a pro like everyone else was already evident in 2014 when, at the age of 25, he retired from the national team at the age of 75 international matches, which was something that some people in his home country really resented.

“It’s about finding the right balance between sports and the rest of my life. There is something other than handball,”said Ekdahl du Rietz at the time. Today he knows:”That was one of my most difficult, but also my best decision in retrospect.”

While his colleagues in the Hamsterrad Handball also fought year after year for fame and glory during the breaks in the leagues at World Cup, European Championships or Olympic Games, he looked beyond his own nose and went on his travels.

For example, while most of his teammates pantled to France for the World Cup last January, Ekdahl du Rietz played through the Finnish part of Lapland. Far north to Rovaniemi, where Santa Claus is supposedly at home.

At that time, his decision to end the contract by 2018 at club level in the summer had long since been made. When he taught the lions, the people in charge were not even particularly surprised.

“We all know what kind of person Kim is. That’s why we knew that something like this could happen at some point,”said Oliver Roggisch, the club’s sports director from Baden. And team mate Andreas Palicka added:”He’s not a normal Swede, but he’s a fucking horny guy.”

Of course, no one had missed the fact that Ekdahl du Rietz never allowed himself to be completely taken in by handball. He speaks English, German, French and Swedish, holds a sailing licence and studied psychology at the same time. Not because he wants to go in this direction professionally, but because he needs the feeling of doing something meaningful.

Now the next step follows. For Ekdahl du Rietz, it must feel like an outburst of freedom. He just can’t take it anymore to align his life around a game plan.

“I have a great need for independence, this desire is very pronounced with me. In the end, I was more and more annoyed by the fact that I was told when to be where and when to play handball,”explained Ekdahl du Rietz.

The Northern Lights do not yet know what the future looks like. Handball has given him the privilege of not having to worry about his finances for at least the next few years and of being able to choose freely.

In the summer we go to Africa, Senegal and Liberia. But then?”There is no long-term plan yet. First of all, it feels good not to know where we are going,”says Ekdahl du Rietz.

Fact is: A comeback in handball is not an option. After the best season of his life, in which he played “like a young god” according to Roggisch, I quit because I don’t feel like it anymore. And not to come back at some point,”the extroverted Swede explained.

The curtain falls on Saturday at the last game against Melsungen. For him it would be the “crassest moment” of his life. And perhaps the beginning of great happiness.

Because Ekdahl du Rietz knows,”I get back control of my life.”

Kim Ekdahl du Rietz in the profile