You won’t find someone like Patrick Wiencek in German handball anytime soon. A guy hard as concrete, yet soft as a down pillow. How can someone who is so tough, so bossy, so relentless on the handball field, who often hurts his opponents at two meters tall and 117 kilos, be such a gentle guy off the field? Wiencek is usually the “loveliest guy who can’t even hurt a fly,” Hendrik Pekeler once said of his defensive colleague. A gentle giant, if you will.
But not on the record, where Wiencek could use his elemental powers to shake a hall. Then Wiencek, nicknamed “Bam-Bam”, left like the baby with the club from the animated series Flintstones, snapping his paws shut. The attacking player tried to squirm, but Wiencek’s grip held him tightly. At some point, the opponent wriggled in the air and complained, but there was only one free throw. Fixed fairly, as is so often the case.
So Wiencek will definitely be missing. On Monday he declared his career in the German national team over at the age of 32, after twelve years in the national jersey, a few of them as captain. After 159 international matches and 316 goals, he is retiring and wants to concentrate on club handball at THW Kiel for the rest of his career, where his contract runs until at least 2023. It was “very difficult” for him to resign, Wiencek said: “It was always for me an honor to play for Germany.”
“Patrick is not so old that he has to retire,” says national coach Gislason
Wiencek spent his best time in the national team alongside Pekeler, his friend and colleague from Kiel. “Best inner block in the world” was both called, they were like no other duo. Even if the view went somewhere else, Wiencek knew exactly what Pekeler was planning – and vice versa. Both have not worn the national jersey at the same game for a long time; someone was injured again and again, first Pekeler, then Wiencek. Pekeler announced his retirement from the national team last year, and his colleague is now following him. It is the players’ attempt to reduce the personal burden in order to be able to last a few more years at the club. There is no other way in professional handball with this tight schedule.
A well-rehearsed duo: Patrick Wiencek (left) and Hendrik Pekeler are only on the field together at THW Kiel.
(Photo: Cathrin Müller/MIS/Imago)
For national coach Alfred Gislason, the decision did not really come as a surprise. He maintains a close relationship with Wiencek, whom he brought from VfL Gummersbach to THW Kiel in 2012 and trained as a world-class pivot and defender. Wiencek had already indicated to him some time ago that he would not continue indefinitely in the national team, Gislason said on Tuesday. The fact that Wiencek actually stops is “really a shame”. Gislason also thinks: “Patrick is not so old that he has to stop.” But the national coach knows Wiencek’s injury history, and he knows how demanding it is for the body when you’ve been playing at the highest level in the Bundesliga for more than twelve years.
For Gislason, the search for a new duo begins – knowing full well that he won’t find one anytime soon. “Pekeler and Wiencek are no longer there,” the national coach stated wistfully. You now have to work on “recording three to four people in such a way that they can achieve this quality”. Specifically, it’s about the position next to Flensburg’s Johannes Golla, who should be set as captain and defense chief. In particular, the Leipzig Simon Ernst, who made a good figure at the European Championships in Poland and Hungary, and the Göppingen Sebastian Heymann come into question. But also young players like Julian Köster (VfL Gummersbach) and Tim Zechel (HC Erlangen), whom Gislason has just brought to the national team. In the two international matches against Hungary in March (19th and 20th March) he can test some formations when Wiencek is at home in Kiel and enjoying the time when there are no international matches.
What remains is the feeling that Wiencek could have won a little more in his DHB career. He was U-21 world champion and third at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, for which he was subsequently awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf. He missed the German EM triumph in 2016 because of a cruciate ligament tear; Olympics in Beijing 2021 due to broken fibula. It is the lot of an uncompromising defender who, for many years, has looked first to how he can help the team – and only then to his own body.