Personal information | |||
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Born | July 26, 1952 Gummersbach, West Germany |
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Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||
Playing position | Pivot | ||
Club information | |||
Current club | VfL Gummersbach | ||
Youth clubs | |||
1959–1987 | VfL Gummersbach | ||
Senior clubs | |||
1987–1991 1992–1994 1994–1996 |
VfL Gummersbach SG Wallau-Massenheim VfL Gummersbach |
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Heiner Brand (born July 26, 1952 in Gummersbach) is a former West German handball player. Starting in 1997, he is currently the German national team's coach.
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Brand is the only person who has won the world handball championship, both as a player (in 1978) and as a coach (in 2007). In 1976, he was part of the West German team finishing fourth in the Olympic tournament in Montreal. He played all six matches, scoring twelve goals in the process.
Brand appeared on the cover of the PC game Handball Manager 2008.
He gained fame outside of the handball world in 2009, when after the final whistle of World Championship match between Germany and Norway, he was captured by television cameras rushing towards the referees, turning red and shaking his fist. Brand calmed down after a few seconds and no assault happened, but the event became a well known viral video on the internet.[1]
His trademark since The Seventies is a thick and bushy walrus moustache à la Friedrich Nietzsche.
Brand has two older brothers named Klaus (*1942) and Jochen (*1944). Both also appeared for the German national handball team.