Heiner Brand

Heiner Brand was a member of the West German handball team that lost the match for the bronze medal 21-18 against Poland after extra time at the 1976 Montréal Olympics. He earned 131 international caps scoring 231 goals. In 1978 he won the World Championships with the West German national team. Domestically, he played with VfL Gummersbach for his whole life. He won West German titles as a player from 1973-76 and from 1982-83, in addition to West German Cups in 1977, 1978, 1982, and 1983. He also earned international merits, winning the EHF Cup Winners’ Cup in 1978 and 1979 and the EHF European Champions Cup in 1974 and 1983. Additionally, he won the European Supercup in 1979 and 1983 and the IHF Cup in 1982. His brothers Klaus and Jochen also became handball players on a national level.

Brand then turned to coaching, with VfL Gummersbach from 1987-91 and 1994-96. In between he worked with SG Wallau / Massenheim from 1992-94. In 1997 he was named assistant coach of the German national team, and in 2000 chief coach. “Mr Handball” as he was nicknamed, well-known by his fabulous mustache, coached the team to silver medals at both the 2002 Europeans and the 2003 Worlds. In 2004, he won the gold medal at the Europeans and a silver medal at the Athens Olympics. His biggest moment as a coach was the 2007 World Championship, when his team won the final in Köln (Cologne) 29-24 versus Poland. He was then the first handball player ever to become World Champion as a player and as a coach. In 2011 Brand retired from coaching and became manager of the German national team until 2015.

In addition to his coaching career Brand also led the insurance agency founded by his father in his hometown of Gummersbach and worked as a motivational speaker. He received several awards, among them: Team of the Year with the West German national team (1978), Team of the Year with VfL Gummersbach (1982), Handball Coach of the Year (1998, 2002-04, 2006-08), Induction into the German Sports Hall of Fame (2007), Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2007), Coach of the Year in Germany (2007), and the Silver Bay Leaf (2007).