Nele Antonissen leads Belgium’s Sister Act

Handball is full of family affairs — in many different constellations. Father and son (like David and Ian Barrufet), brothers (like Guillaume and Bertrand Gilles or Nikola and Luka Karabatic), father and two sons (like Talant, Dani and Alex Dujshebaev), sisters (like Kristine and Katrine Lunde), mother and daughter (like Andrea and Emily Bölk) or father, daughter and sons (like Gino, Inger, Kay and Jorn Smits).

But then, three sisters in the same team — even more so, in the national team?

Belgium can count on Nele, Lotte and Emma Antonissen, three sisters from Antwerp. Emma is in the goal, Lotte on the left wing, and Nele is the centre back.

And Nele Antonissen is not only the top scorer of her team, but the overall top scorer of the Women’s EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers so far, with 43 goals in four matches — a fact she wasn’t aware of.

“Of course, I knew that I scored a lot of goals but had not checked the overall stats. This is really great to know,” says the 29-year-old centre back, who has been playing outside Belgium for 11 years — first in the Netherlands for V&L and Dalfsen, now in France for Handball Plan des Cuques.

On Wednesday (20:10 CEST, live on EHFTV), Belgium and the Antonissen sisters play the highlight match of round 5 against Slovenia in their home base, Hasselt.

Belgium, nicknamed ‘The Black Arrows’, are on two points after their historic 26:25 win against North Macedonia. Slovenia have four points.

“We are realistic and we know we are far away from being the favourites, but we are ready to fight. At the end, we will see the result. It belongs to the beauty of handball that everything can happen,” Nele Antonissen says.

She was the first of the siblings to play handball, her mother was a basketball player.

“We were on holiday with a large group, which included a handball coach. I was playing basketball that time, and he persuaded me to go to the handball training. I loved handball, I stayed and then my sisters followed”, Nele Antonissen says.

“Our parents only wanted us to play a team sport, regardless which one. And now it is so great for me to come to the national team to play with my sisters, who both play for Hubo Handball on club level. For us, it is quite normal now, but for others, this is still something special to have a team with three sisters – even in the starting seven like in both matches against North Macedonia.”

The current qualifier series marks the first time the Belgian women’s national team appears in phase 2 of the qualification route to an EHF EURO final tournament. In phase 1, they won the tournament on Cyprus, beating both the hosts and Luxembourg.

“It was of course a very special moment for us. Burt we only realised what we had achieved when the qualifiers’ groups were drawn and we were in one group with traditional big handball nations as Germany, Slovenia and North Macedonia. Then we really felt happy”, Nele Antonissen says.

“For 10 years we have been training hard, but obviously we did not go ahead. Now the time has come to proceed, and this is our motivation.”

Their first home match against Germany was very special for Belgium, not only as they faced Belgian-born Xenia Smits.

“She is an absolute role model for all of us, as Xenia shows, what is possible. Nobody is angry that she changed her citizenship”, says Nele Antonissen, who was in the same handball academy as Xenia Smits in Hasselt.

When Germany and Belgium meet again in round 6 on Sunday, IHF World Championship silver medallist Xenia Smits will not be on the court as she is on maternity leave.

Against North Macedonia, her sister Munia Smits was one of the driving forces of Belgium, but she tore ligaments in her knee two weeks ago in a league match in Germany.

“She was such a great help four our team. This injury is very hard and sad for Munia in the first place, but also for our team of course,” says Nele Antonissen.

Without her, it will be harder to take a point against Slovenia, but “our strength is the team spirit. Even when we were well behind against Germany, we still continued fighting. We never give up,” says Nele Antonissen, who hopes for the same fan support that helped them beat North Macedonia in March.

Despite the away defeat in North Macedonia, their win at home can still be pivotal for Belgium, who hope for a direct spot in the EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers without the hassle of having to go through qualification phase 1 again.

With several young players developing in foreign leagues and gaining international experience, the Belgian side hope for a further improvement. Like the men’s national did, when they sensationally made it to the 2021 World Championship and caused a kind of handball euphoria at home.

“This was an exceptional moment for handball in Belgium,” says Nele Antonissen. “So, it is our dream in the future to also qualify for a major tournament — and then to continue at that level.”

all images © Alain Decamps