Hans Einar Magnus Wislander (born 22 February 1964) is a Swedish former handball player, who has been voted Handball Player of the Century and is widely regarded as one of the best players ever. Debuting with the national team in 1985, he played 386 games and scored 1,191 goals, a record for both most matches and most goals for the Sweden national team. He played for Redbergslids IK, Gothenburg and THW Kiel. In 1990 he was named IHF World Player of the Year.
He was included in the European Handball Federation Hall of Fame in 2023.
He played primarily as a centre back, but transitioned to be a pivot in his latter years. He has earned the nickname 'Slangen' (The hose).
Career
Wislander started playing handball at Tuve IF, before joining Gothenburg club Redbergslids IK in 1979. Here he won the Swedish championship 4 times. In 1990 he joined German top club THW Kiel, where he played until 2002 and won the German championship 7 times. He played 369 league matches for the club, scoring 1,371 goals and captained theteam from 1991 2001. He then returned Redbergslids IK as player-coach. In 2003 he won his fifth Swedish championship. He retired in 2005, and continued as the coach. He continued as a coach until 2022.
In November 2011 he made a one game comeback at the age of 47 for Redbergslids IK against Hammarby IF. He played for 6 minutes and scored one goal.
At Kiel, his shirtnumber (#2) is retired and hangs under the roof at the Kiel home arena Ostseehalle.
Post-playing career Wislander has worked as a handball expert on Swedish radio and a postal worker at PostNord.
Club Honours
Redbergslid Elitserien (5): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 2002–03
Kiel Bundesliga (7): 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2001–02 DHB-Pokal (3): 1998, 1999, 2000 Supercup (2): 1995, 1998 EHF Cup (2): 1998, 2002
Individual IHF World Player of the Year - 1990 Best player of the 20th century by: IHF Best player of the 20th century by: Sweden Elected best player of THW Kiel in the 20th century Record for caps and goals in the Swedish national team Best player at 2002 European Championship Elected best handball player of the year in Sweden: 1986 and 1990 Elected best handball player of the year in Germany: 2000 Voted Best foreign player of Bundesliga: 1994, 1995, 1996 Voted Best Player THW Kiel: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 EHF Hall of Fame: 2023
World Championships 1990 - gold 1993 - bronze 1995 - bronze 1997 - silver 1999 - gold 2001 - silver
European Championships 1994 - gold 1998 - gold 2000 - gold 2002 - gold
See also List of men's handballers with 1000 or more international goals
References
External links