Handball: Schwalb likes the job of the national coach

Former championship coach Martin Schwalb has criticised national coach Christian Prokop and described the position as “appealing” for himself: “He reached his mental limits. This is an apprenticeship”, Schwalb said in an interview with the G14 Group, an association of 14 sports editorial offices of medium-sized regional newspapers (Thursday issues).

He added: “You’re also under such pressure as a handball coach because you have a lot of important decisions to make in the last five minutes. If you have no experience and no automatisms, you make the wrong decisions.”

Despite the disappointing main round out at the European Championships in Croatia, the DHB Prokop has expressed its confidence. This has always irritated me and will always irritate me,” said the 54-year-old.

Schwalb cannot fully understand the decision in favour of Prokop: “There should be greater tensions between him and the national team. That has nothing to do with the fact that I would like to become national coach some day: “We didn’t give a good picture at the EM. There were big cracks in the team that everyone saw. In normal commercial business this means that the coach does not fit the team or vice versa,” said Schwalb.

He added: “This does not mean that Christian Prokop is a bad coach. Even a Pep Guardiola doesn’t fit everywhere. Time will tell.”