A Winter Fairytale?

Germany went crazy over its first sporting love last summer when the soccer World Cup hit town. Fans of Germany's second favorite sport are preparing their own feverish carnival this winter, albeit on a smaller scale, when the handball world championships begin in Germany on Jan. 19.

While many of the comparisons between soccer and handball are obvious -- object of the game, positions of players etc. -- some are less so.

Take Heiner Brand, the coach of the German national handball team, for instance. He is known as the Franz Beckenbauer of German handball; the face and the voice of the sport. But Brand is quite a different sporting animal to the soccer statesman. Most obviously, he thinks before he opens his mouth. Then there is the stoic nature and unglamorous lifestyle, not to mention the nickname: while Beckenbauer revels in the moniker of "Kaiser," Brand is known as "Antje" -- named after the walrus mascot of the North German Broadcasting Corporation.

Handball's "Kaiser" leads bid for glory

The 54-year-old with the immense moustache and tinted glasses gets irritated by the comparisons between himself and Kaiser Franz, and his beloved handball and soccer.

"Soccer is a people's sport, everybody understands the game," he said. "This is not the case with handball."

Despite his prickliness towards the comparisons, he couldn't avoid making one himself recently when asked about his hopes for the world championships, which run from Jan. 19 to Feb. 4. Looking back at Germany's World Cup summer fairytale, Brand said: "We hope for a winter fairytale." He will not be alone in that hope.

Where soccer can sometimes be dull and slow, handball is rarely so. The game moves at a faster pace; there are many more goals, constantly changing tactical approaches and last minute decisions. With the crowd in such close proximity to the court and the players pounding the surface in wave after wave of attack, it is almost certainly louder, too. World championship games are expected to attract up to 20,000 spectators and that makes for a small hurricane of noise within a sports hall.

Soccer's poor relation?

Despite the fanatic following the sport has among its supporters, handball is not a mass global sport. Despite it being an Olympic discipline, handball is played in Europe, North Africa, South Korea, Japan and South America, but is virtually unknown elsewhere.

And while the sport's heart beats strongest in Europe, the distribution of its popularity is erratic. In Spain, and France handball is popular, but not in Italy. Scandinavian lands are traditionally great handball powers, but the sport is hardly played in Finland. Central European and eastern European countries have a great enthusiasm for handball, but in the British Isles, it's an oddity.

Nowhere does handball get such a following as in Germany and despite the Dirk Nowitzki-inspired surge in basketball's popularity, handball remains the second best loved sport in the country. And those who commit to handball are handsomely rewarded: the federal league is the strongest league of the world and attracts world class players, who earn a lot of money in Germany. Star players take home annual salaries in the several hundred thousand euros range.

Euro success kick-starts modern revolution

The success of the German league can be attributed, at least in part, to the success of the national team. In 2004, Germany became European champion, the team's first title for a quarter century. In the same year, the team reached the Olympic finale. Then a whole generation of player's resigned. However, one man remained to set Germany on the path to further success: Heiner Brand.

Brand may be in charge of bringing world championship glory to the Germany team but those soccer comparisons just keep on coming when one looks at the team and campaign behind the tournament.

Just as the soccer World Cup had its embarrassing mascot, so Hannibal hopes to spread the joy and rally the crowds in much the same way as Goleo…although he'll be wearing pants. And the organizers have paid close attention to the way a sport can mobilize the masses and will be pulling out all the stops to generate at least a fraction of the attention the World Cup received by way of advertising and merchandising. There won't be, however, a repeat of the fan mile phenomenon which marked last summer's spectacle as a truly all-embracing event. There will be some public viewing areas in selected cities, however.

And just as Jürgen Klinsmann's soccer stars became stars of the silver screen as well thanks to German film maker Sönke Wortmann's World Cup documentary, Brand's players will be caught on camera by director Winfried Oelsner.

"The fact that this will be the biggest world championship is already certain," said Ulrich Strombach, the president of the German Handball Federation. "The number of teams, the number of games and the expected number of spectators will assure that." With the tournament almost a complete sell-out, an economic success is also certain.

Brand bidding for second title

What isn't certain is a fairytale ending to the tournament for the Germany team. Coach Brand believes that his team need a small miracle to be crowned world champions in February, a feat they have only ever achieved once, in Denmark in 1978 when Brand was a defender in the winning team. While Germany is one of the favorites for the 2007 title alongside Spain, France, Croatia and Denmark, Brand's squad has been struck by an injury plague of almost biblical proportions. Six first team players are out with a myriad of injuries, meaning an entire starting line-up is out of action.

Now almost 30 years after the Miracle of Copenhagen, Brand hopes to repeat the feat he achieved as a player in his role as coach, which would no doubt prompt further comparisons to Beckenbauer. Hopefully, being world champion would temper any irritation the Germany coach might have with that.