WC – Had enough
KRAKOW (Dagbladet): Denmark’s great handball star, Mikkel Hansen, announced a transfer from French PSG to Aalborg in his home country last year.
The return has attracted a lot of attention in the home country, and in an interview with the Danish newspaper BT before the WC, the 36-year-old says that he has had enough of the massive attention he gets in connection with Aalborg’s matches.
Rage against WC regime
Hansen tells the newspaper about an inferno of children begging and asking him to give up his suit, headband or even sweaty socks.
Now he’s bored.
– It’s fair enough to ask about a suit, but when you get a no, you don’t have to ask about headbands and socks. It is obviously an expectation that you have to have and have all the time, in the past it was enough with an autograph. It has become too much, he explains to BT.
Norway’s national team wingers Kristian Bjørnsen and Sebastian Barthold are teammates with Hansen in Aalborg, and have registered the hysteria themselves.
– We are talking about one of the biggest sports profiles in Denmark, everyone wants a bit of him after both home and away games. He often stays standing for a while. It has been an extreme push for him to hand out headbands and miscellaneous. It can be frustrating, but he is down-to-earth and gives people what they need. At the same time, it is up to him and to be able to say when enough is enough, says Barthold.
Bjørnsen calls the pressure around Hansen insane.
Norwegian celebration: – Annoying
– He is a superstar who has delivered at an insane level. And he remains one of the best players in the world. The pressure against him has been sickening since he came home to Denmark. I understand that he may think it will be a bit much. It can be a lot for everyone, but at the same time I think he copes with it exemplary, sums up the seasoned right winger from Stavanger.
Hansen is naturally part of the Danish WC squad. Denmark is one of the big gold favorites. Belgium, Bahrain and Tunisia meet in the group stage.