Hans Einar Magnus Wislander (born 22 February 1964) is a Swedish former handball player, who has been voted Handball Player of the Century and is widely regarded as one of the best players ever. Debuting with the national team in 1985, he played 386 games and scored 1,191 goals, a record for both most matches and most goals for the Sweden national team. He played for Redbergslids IK, Gothenburg and THW Kiel. In 1990 he was named IHF World Player of the Year.

He was included in the European Handball Federation Hall of Fame in 2023.

He played primarily as a centre back, but transitioned to be a pivot in his latter years. He has earned the nickname 'Slangen' (The hose).

Career

Wislander started playing handball at Tuve IF, before joining Gothenburg club Redbergslids IK in 1979. Here he won the Swedish championship 4 times. In 1990 he joined German top club THW Kiel, where he played until 2002 and won the German championship 7 times. He played 369 league matches for the club, scoring 1,371 goals and captained theteam from 1991 2001. He then returned Redbergslids IK as player-coach. In 2003 he won his fifth Swedish championship. He retired in 2005, and continued as the coach. He continued as a coach until 2022.

In November 2011 he made a one game comeback at the age of 47 for Redbergslids IK against Hammarby IF. He played for 6 minutes and scored one goal.

At Kiel, his shirtnumber (#2) is retired and hangs under the roof at the Kiel home arena Ostseehalle.

Post-playing career

Wislander has worked as a handball expert on Swedish radio and a postal worker at PostNord.

Club Honours

Redbergslid

• Elitserien (5): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 2002–03

Kiel

• Bundesliga (7): 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2001–02

• DHB-Pokal (3): 1998, 1999, 2000

• Supercup (2): 1995, 1998

• EHF Cup (2): 1998, 2002

Individual

• IHF World Player of the Year - 1990

• Best player of the 20th century by: IHF

• Best player of the 20th century by: Sweden

• Elected best player of THW Kiel in the 20th century

• Record for caps and goals in the Swedish national team

• Best player at 2002 European Championship

• Elected best handball player of the year in Sweden: 1986 and 1990

• Elected best handball player of the year in Germany: 2000

• Voted Best foreign player of Bundesliga: 1994, 1995, 1996

• Voted Best Player THW Kiel: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999

• EHF Hall of Fame: 2023

World Championships

• 1990 - gold

• 1993 - bronze

• 1995 - bronze

• 1997 - silver

• 1999 - gold

• 2001 - silver

European Championships

• 1994 - gold

• 1998 - gold

• 2000 - gold

• 2002 - gold

See also

• List of men's handballers with 1000 or more international goals

References

External links