Hoffenheim guests of the Rhein-Neckar Lions

For the series “Sportsman meets Sportsman”, the title series of achtzehn99 in the 2010/11 season – Fritz met goalkeeper Tom Starke. A few weeks later, more handball players arrived to meet the team. This time it was Robert Gunnarsson and Gudjon Sigurdsson, compatriot of TSG's Iceland midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.

And almost a year since, Gunnnarson has come by for another visit. The pivot player for the Rhein-Neckar Lions, incidentally, had trials with an English professional club, before embarking on a career in handball. “They told me I was too heavy, but that I should come back the next year”, revealed Gunnarson. Tom Starke took a crash course in how to be a handball goalkeeper, and enjoyed it so much that he was invited back to watch the Lions take on national handball champions Hamburger SV. When manager Holger Stanislawski heard of this, the occasion was used as a trip for the whole team. Thus it happened that the entire Hoffenheim squad – players, coaches and advisors – took the team bus to the SAP-Arena on Wednesday night to watch the Lions take on Hamburg.

And it was worth it! The Lions put in a passionate performance and won out over HSV 33-29, thus giving their new fans from TSG some inspiration for their home game with VfL Wolfsburg at the weekend. One professional team was in force for another, and it surely won't be the last time that such a show of support is seen at Hoffenheim.