The IHF Men's Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938.

In the twenty-nine tournaments held, twelve national teams have won the title. France is the most successful team with six titles, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Romania with four titles each.

The current champion is Denmark, which won its fourth consecutive title at the 2025 tournament in Croatia, Denmark and Norway.

History The first indoor championship took place in Germany in 1938, involving four teams from Europe made up of 7 players who competed in a round robin stage to find a winner. The second World Championship was not held until sixteen years later in the country of Sweden. Throughout their history, the World Championships have been dominated by European teams, with no medals being won by non-European countries until 2015, by Qatar. Over the years, the format of the World Championships has changed. Initially, there were group games in both the preliminary and main rounds, but since the 1995 edition a knockout system has been applied after the preliminary round.

Tournaments #YearHostFinalThird place matchTeamsChampionsScoreRunners-upThird placeScoreFourth place11938DetailsGermanyRound-robinRound-robin421954DetailsSweden17–1424–11631958DetailsEast Germany22–1216–131641961DetailsWest Germany9–8 (2ET)17–141251964DetailsCzechoslovakia25–2222–151661967DetailsSweden14–1121–19 (ET)1671970DetailsFrance13–12 (2ET)29–121681974DetailsEast Germany14–1218–161691978DetailsDenmark20–1919–1516101982DetailsWest Germany30–27 (ET)23–2216111986DetailsSwitzerland24–2224–2316121990DetailsCzechoslovakia27–2327–2116131993DetailsSweden28–1926–1916141995DetailsIceland23–1926–2024151997DetailsJapan23–2128–2724161999DetailsEgypt25–2427–2424172001DetailsFrance28–25 (ET)27–1724182003DetailsPortugal34–3127–2224192005DetailsTunisia40–3426–2524202007DetailsGermany29–2434–2724212009DetailsCroatia24–1931–2324222011DetailsSweden37–35 (ET)24–2324232013DetailsSpain35–1931–2624242015DetailsQatar25–2229–28 (ET)24252017DetailsFrance33–2631–3024262019Details Denmark / Germany31–2226–2524272021DetailsEgypt26–2435–2932282023Details Poland / Sweden34–2939–3632292025Details Croatia / Denmark / Norway32–2635–3432302027DetailsGermany32312029Details France / Germany32322031Details Denmark / Iceland / Norway32

Medal table

Participating nations

Statistics List of hosts List of hosts by number of championships hosted.

Times hostedHostYear(s)9 (including East* and West Germany**) 1938, 1958*, 1961**, 1974*, 1982**, 2007, 2019, (2027, 2029)5 1954, 1967, 1993, 2011, 20234 1978, 2019, 2025, (2031) 1970, 2001, 2017, (2029)2 2009, 2025 1964, 1990 1999, 2021 1995, (2031) 2025, (2031)1 1997 2023 2003 2015 2013 1986 2005

All-time table for semi-finalists (1938–2025) TeamParticipationsGamesNbTitles % Top 4 %Pld W % D % L % 8 0 0,0 % 1 12,5 % 45 17 37,8 % 4 8,9 % 24 53,3 % 16 1 6,3 % 7 43,8 % 132 95 72,0 % 7 5,3 % 30 22,7 % 12 1 8,3 % 5 41,7 % 72 41 56,9 % 7 9,7 % 24 33,3 % 26 4 15,4 % 14 53,8 % 183 124 67,8 % 8 4,4 % 51 27,9 % 8 0 0,0 % 4 50,0 % 45 24 53,3 % 6 13,3 % 15 33,3 % 18 0 0,0 % 1 5,6 % 130 60 46,2 % 8 6,2 % 62 47,7 % 25 6 24,0 % 15 60,0 % 188 130 69,1 % 7 3,7 % 51 27,1 % 20 2 10,0 % 8 40,0 % 152 104 68,4 % 11 7,2 % 37 24,3 % 23 0 0,0 % 2 8,7 % 164 84 51,2 % 11 6,7 % 69 42,1 % 18 0 0,0 % 2 11,1 % 119 65 54,6 % 7 5,9 % 47 39,5 % 18 0 0,0 % 5 27,8 % 121 66 54,5 % 6 5,0 % 49 40,5 % 6 0 0,0 % 1 16,7 % 39 20 51,3 % 2 5,1 % 17 43,6 % 10 0 0,0 % 1 10,0 % 67 24 35,8 % 0 0,0 % 43 64,2 % 14 4 28,6 % 6 42,9 % 92 57 62,0 % 4 4,8 % 31 33,7 % 13 2 15,4 % 3 23,1 % 107 66 61,7 % 8 7,5 % 33 30,8 % 11 0 0,0 % 2 18,2 % 79 40 50,6 % 5 6,3 % 34 43,0 % 8 1 12,5 % 4 50,0 % 51 35 68,6 % 2 3,9 % 14 27,5 % 23 2 8,7 % 8 34,8 % 182 124 68,1 % 9 4,9 % 49 26,9 % 27 4 14,8 % 15 55,6 % 193 131 67,9 % 8 4,1 % 54 28,0 % 12 0 0,0 % 2 16,7 % 62 25 40,3 % 5 8,1 % 32 51,6 % 17 0 0,0 % 1 5,6 % 116 44 37,9 % 10 8,6 % 62 53,4 % 7 1 14,3 % 2 28,6 % 44 28 63,6 % 4 9,1 % 12 27,3 % 10 1 10,0 % 5 50,0 % 59 35 59,3 % 5 8,5 % 19 32,2 % 5 0 0,0 % 2 40,0 % 42 27 64,3 % 4 9,5 % 11 26,2 % Draws include knockout matches decided in a penalty shootout.

Most successful players Boldface denotes active handball players and highest medal count among all players (including these who are not included in these tables) per type.

Multiple gold medalists

Rank Player Country From To Gold Silver BronzeTotal 1 Thierry Omeyer 2001 2017 5 – 2 7 2 Nikola Karabatić 2005 2023 4 1 2 7 3 Mads Mensah Larsen 2013 2025 4 1 – 5 Henrik Møllgaard 2013 2025 4 1 – 5 5 Jérôme Fernandez 2001 2015 4 – 2 6 Michaël Guigou 2005 2019 4 – 2 6 Daniel Narcisse 2001 2017 4 – 2 6 8 Cédric Sorhaindo 2009 2019 4 – 1 5 9 Simon Hald 2019 2025 4 – – 4 Jóhan Hansen 2019 2025 4 – – 4 Magnus Landin Jacobsen 2019 2025 4 – – 4

Multiple medalists The table shows players who have won at least 6 medals in total at the World Championships.

Rank Player Country From To Gold Silver BronzeTotal 1 Thierry Omeyer 2001 2017 5 – 2 7 2 Nikola Karabatić 2005 2023 4 1 2 7 3 Jérôme Fernandez 2001 2015 4 – 2 6 Michaël Guigou 2005 2019 4 – 2 6 Daniel Narcisse 2001 2017 4 – 2 6 6 Magnus Andersson 1990 2001 2 2 2 6 Ola Lindgren 1990 2001 2 2 2 6 Magnus Wislander 1990 2001 2 2 2 6 9 Jackson Richardson 1993 2005 2 1 3 6

Top scorers by tournament The record-holder for scored goals in a single World Championship is Kiril Lazarov. He scored 92 goals for Macedonia in nine matches at the 2009 World Championship.

YearPlayerGoals1938 Yngve Lamberg Hans-Werner Obermark Hans Theilig61954 Otto Maychrzak161958 Mogens Olsen461961 Petre Ivănescu Zdeněk Rada241964 Hans (Ioan) Moser331967 Herbert Lübking381970 Vladimir Maksimov311974 Ștefan Birtalan431978 Jerzy Klempel Péter Kovács471982 Vasile Stîngă651986 Kang Jae-won671990 Roberto Julián Duranona Aleksandr Tuchkin551993 Marc Baumgartner József Éles Yoon Kyung-shin411995 Yoon Kyung-shin861997 Yoon Kyung-shin621999 Rolando Uríos572001 Eduard Koksharov612003 Carlos Pérez642005 Wissem Hmam812007 Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 662009 Kiril Lazarov922011 Mikkel Hansen682013 Anders Eggert622015 Dragan Gajić712017 Kiril Lazarov502019 Mikkel Hansen722021 Frankis Carol582023 Mathias Gidsel602025 Mathias Gidsel74

See also IHF World Women's Handball Championship IHF World Men's Outdoor Handball Championship

Notes

References

External links Official website IHF official website – Competition History IHF official website – Men's World Championships IHF official website – Men's World Championships – Statistics (1938–2009) All time statistics with link to all results and all medal winners All time medal winners