Fuchse Berlin

Mathias Gidsel arrived in 2022 and left as a three-time IHF World Player of the Year and Olympic champion. Around him a squad built partly on its own graduates — Paul Drux and Fabian Wiede among them — turned Füchse Berlin into a team that finally won a Bundesliga title in 2024/25, beating SC Magdeburg to the championship the club had never held before.

That rivalry runs through the recent record. Magdeburg had denied Füchse Berlin the EHF Champions League in the 2025 final, 32–26, and matches between the two are known as the Nordderby. The Supercup went to Magdeburg's rival treatment in reverse — Füchse Berlin beat them to it in 2024, then saw off THW Kiel on penalties in 2025 after a 34–34 draw, having lost the same fixture to Kiel back in 2014.

The squad has kept adding to that spine: Aitor Ariño joined from Barcelona in 2025 with five Champions League titles already behind him, and Dika Mem, a World and Olympic champion, followed from the same club. They now play at the Max-Schmeling-Halle, known locally as the Fuchsbau, in green and white. Founded on 28 January 1891 in Reinickendorf, under a name that had nothing to do with foxes or handball at all.