Through 19 years of a great career, he wore the jerseys of the giant Barcelona and the powerful Paris Saint-Germain, he led his Denmark to Olympic, world and European gold, one of the greatest masters of handball in history, but he will never hug the Champions League trophy...
Large Mikel Hansen on Sunday he played his last match in the club competition, in the final of the Champions League against Barca he had a shot that would have taken his Aalborg to extra time, but...
Just as the Champions League eluded him over the years, this time too everything had to be somehow symbolic - from the last shot of the game from nine meters over the living wall he hit the crossbar.
Barça won 31:30, confirmed once again that they are the greatest handball club of all time, and Hansen vented his anger about this shot and probably many failures in the Champions League on an advertisement next to the field.
Interestingly, at the beginning of his career, he scored from practically the same position against Russia to win the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.
"Of course I will always miss this trophy, but there is nothing more to talk about. I had many chances, but I failed," Hansen said while leaving the "Lankses Arena" in Cologne, reports "Ekip".
There is still one last dance of the legendary handball player - with Denmark during the summer at the Olympic Games in Paris.
"While I was watching Barcelona on the podium, I was already thinking about Paris, it's my city and the end of my career there would be really magnificent," added Hansen.
He also turned to Aalborg...
"It was a season we have to be proud of, especially as we were champions of Denmark. I will continue to follow handball and I hope to see Aalborg here again next time, maybe with a trophy," concluded Hansen.
The Champions League has remained elusive, but five gold medals shine from his chest - from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, from the 2019, 2021 and 2023 World Championships and the 2012 European Championship.
In addition to all that, he also has a silver medal from the Games in Tokyo, he was twice the vice-champion of the world and Europe.
The IHF named him the best handball player on the planet three times (2011, 2015, 2018), on the same number of occasions he was the MVP of the world championships (2013, 2019, 2021), and once of the Olympic Games (2016).
One of the greatest ever - Mikkel Hansen. And without the Champions League trophy.
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