The Swiss have set an exclamation mark by reaching the main round of the World Championship. Thanks in part to intrepid and big-thinking players like Noam Leopold, the prospects are excellent.
21.01.2025, 04:31
21.01.2025, 06:38
SDA
The 50th minute of the decisive game against Poland has begun. Noam Leopold scores on the left wing and confidently converts to make it 25:23. It is a very important goal after the Eastern Europeans have twice equalized after trailing 15:21 to make it 22:22 and 23:23. Leopold shows no nerves at all in this game. The 22-year-old scored five times, his only miss coming in the 59th minute at 30:27, when the game was already decided.
Leaves nothing to chance
His nerves of steel are no coincidence. Leopold leaves nothing to chance and also invests a lot in mental training. If he wants to learn a new shot, he first looks at it and then visualizes it. He attends hypnosis sessions, works on controlling his thoughts and, above all, his emotions, and meditates every morning - often before games.
"That's an important part of being with myself and not getting lost in my thoughts," says Leopold in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. "What I can control, I want to control. The mental aspect determines whether you get good and how long you can maintain the level."
During his time at Pfadi Winterthur, Leopold worked in the fitness area at Z4P and got to know his body even better. He is studying nutritional science by distance learning. He benefits from the fact that he has no fixed deadlines and can even decide when to take his exams. He has the necessary self-discipline.
All of this helps him to achieve the best possible performance. The best way for him to switch off is with mangas, which are Japanese comics. Not only does he read them, he has also been drawing them for one and a half or two years. "I immerse myself in a completely different world and don't think about where I can improve."
He got into handball through school. "It was actually just luck, I didn't know this sport at all, and neither did my parents. Then I was offered handball by Stäfa at school and I was hooked right from the start," says Leopold. That was when I was "six or seven years old". While others were playing football on the playground, he was throwing balls. He did this for hours. "I had to try every throw I saw on TV."
Dream come true
In 2021, he moved from Stäfa to Pfadi Winterthur. He hit the ground running there last season. He scored 210 goals in the 27 qualifying games, making him the clear number 1 in the league. As a reward for his great performances, he received an offer from top French team Nantes, which reached the final of the Champions League in 2018. When he heard about it, it was immediately clear to him that he would take this step, "no matter what it says on paper."
France is a dream destination for Leopold. His mother comes from Geneva, which is why he grew up bilingual. He even prefers speaking French to German. And he really enjoys the way handball is played there and likes the positive arrogance of the French. Nantes are in first place in the national league and are also doing well in the Champions League, finishing second in Group B.
The pressure on Nantes is immense. After the only defeat in the championship so far this season, the team had to go to the president for a crisis meeting. "That's the culture of the club," says Leopold. Only the championship title counts. But that steels him. He is very impressed by his Spanish teammate Valero Ribera, who plays in the same position as him. "He's not the best athletically, but he has the mentality to make every shot count. His efficiency is terrific."
Big goals
Leopold is currently still playing a supporting role at Nantes. "It's a big change, I was given a lot of responsibility at Pfadi," says Leopold. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. But it's another step in my career, so sitting on the bench for longer is part of it. That also makes me better."
However, he makes no secret of the fact that he wants to play a leading role at Nantes soon. Anything else would not suit him as a big-thinking person. "I've always had big dreams, I want to win the Champions League and become one of the best left-backs in the world," says Leopold, but clarifies: "I still have doubts now. That's part of it. But I know how to deal with them even better. Part of it is having big goals."
He also has such goals with the national team, with whom he would like to take part in the Olympic Games one day. First of all, however, he wants to contribute to a successful main round at the World Cup by scoring more important goals. Their next opponents are Tunisia on Tuesday at 3.30 pm.