Time for Champions — the story of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2025

Time for Champions is focused on the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2025, but follows chosen protagonists from their club’s home cities in the lead up to the pinnacle weekend in Cologne and then, through their eyes, looks at the event as it unfolded in LANXESS arena on 14 and 15 June.

Those chosen protagonists are Füchse Berlin right back Mathias Gidsel and coach Jaron Siewert; SC Magdeburg goalkeeper Sergey Hernandez and centre back Gisli Kristjansson; Barça right back Dika Mem, goalkeeper Emil Nielsen and coach Carlos Ortega; and HBC Nantes left back Thibaud Briet, wing Valero Rivera and coach Gregory Cojean.  

Prior to the weekend in Cologne, Time for Champions offers a glimpse of the build-up —including some ribbing between national teammates Gidsel and Nielsen.

“Emil Nielsen is a problem,” laughs Gidsel. “If I win a Champions League final against Emil Nielsen, I’ll be annoying to listen to. I might as well admit it.”

The two Danes are certainly at the top of their respective positions, and Nielsen shares how long held that dream was for him.

“I’ve had a ball in my hand since I could walk. My goal was to play professionally, win everything and be the best in the world. That’s always been the goal. It’s reflected in all the choices I’ve made in my life,” says the goalkeeper.

“When I have a good day, I feel that I can see the ball much better. I have time for it. I feel the shots come towards me slower. It’s difficult to describe.”

Hernandez’s arc in Time for Champions is a more emotional one, as he shares intimate details of his family life, after being adopted from an orphanage in Russia, living in Denmark with his Spanish parents and starting his handball career in Spain. Chasing his handball dreams took him to Magdeburg, where he hoped to fulfil a meaningful promise to win the EHF Champions League.

“How the hell…you come from Kropotkin, Krasnodar from some hopeless orphanage out there to where I am today,” says Hernandez.

“Everyone will have their motivation, their hopes. For me it’s important to win the EHF FINAL4 because I promised it to myself when my father died.

“Settling that doubt with myself toward him sometimes even feels like a nightmare. Last year, in the semi-final against Aalborg, one of the reasons we lost was because I didn’t think I was playing at EHF FINAL4 level.”

Hernandez’s teammate Kristjansson looks back on their victory in 2023, when he dislocated his shoulder in the semi-final but then led the team to the final win and was named MVP of the EHF FINAL4 — for the first time, as he nabbed the individual award again in 2025.

“With every pass, I felt like ‘oh shit,’” recalls Kristjansson. “I experienced emotions I have never, never felt in my life. Hopefully it will come again.”

The cameras take us into the locker rooms before the matches, where we see Nantes’ focus as they prepare to take the court versus Berlin in the opening semi-final and hear what was going through their minds in that moment.

“It’s going to be about using all mental levers,” says Briet. “Mental, mental.”

Briet echoes the thoughts of Rivera, who says that Berlin were a mighty opponent to face and that the mental challenge would be enormous.

“We f***ing deserve to be here and we’re going to win this damn game, OK?” Rivera yells in the locker room as they prepare to enter the arena. “Everyone gives 100 per cent!”

“Two minutes before the game, you try to fill your head with positive thoughts, until suddenly, everything explodes,” says Briet.

And so the tension builds towards the matches and then we are taken on an emotional rollercoaster with the semi-finalists and eventually finalists. The games are complemented by never-before-seen footage and commentary from the protagonists featured, telling the story of the matches from their perspective.

Time for Champions is an experience of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 like no other. Watch it here.

Photos: kolektiff images/Eva Manhart/Axel Heimken/Jozo Cabraja/Uros Hocevar