The German handball association (DHB) has hired a new head coach for the national team. Christian Prokop takes over from Dagur Sigurdsson, who left the DHB following last month’s world championship.The DHB announced on Friday that Christian Prokop, 38, had signed a five-year contract that will see him coach the national team until 2022. Prokop, who is to be unveiled as the new head coach during Friday night’s game between the handball-Bundesliga All Stars and the national team in Leipzig, is to officially take up his duties on July 1. Although Prokop is to remain coach of Leipzig until the end of the current club season, he is to take charge of the national team for their two European championship qualifiers against Slovenia in May.
Prokop, who currently coaches the surprise team of the current Bundesliga season (SC DHfK Leipzig), replaces Icelandic coach Dagur Sigurdsson, who announced prior to last month’s world championship in France that he would leave the DHB to take up a similar post in Japan. The DHB is also going to use Friday’s game to honor Sigurdsson, who led the German team, who became known as the “bad boys”, to the gold medal at the 2016 European championship in Poland.
pfd/jh (SID, dpa)
