But personally, he feels proud, “I could prove that a 40-year-old man still is able to perform on highest level in a top competition. But this is unfortunately no consolation for getting kicked out from the competition far too early.”
In general, the new EHF European League Men with 32 participants felt “like an EHF Champions League” for Schmid, “With the new structure, many teams with Champions League names and Champions League squads play in the European League. Of course, you have some teams, which did not gain points in this round, the gap to the top sides was quite huge, but overall, the European League is brilliant, as the quality is extremely high.”
Schmid does not have too many doubts that after 19 seasons in European club competition it is time to say farewell on Tuesday, “I know that my clubs plan something, but I do not want to make a big thing out of it. But I know, this was an extremely long journey!”
Everything started with Grasshoppers Zurich in the 2004/05 season in the Cup Winners’ Cup, when they were eliminated by German side Gummersbach in the third qualification round after winning the reverse fixture at Valur. Two more seasons in the EHF Cup followed with Grasshoppers, in 2006/07, Schmid steered his side to the semi-finals against eventual winners SC Magdeburg, followed by another semi-final appearance one year later in the Cup Winners’ Cup, when the club renamed ZMC Amicitia Zurich lost to Valladolid from Spain.
On 23 October 2009, a new era started for Andy Schmid – his first ever EHF Champions League match. And it started with a bang - the prolific centre and left back scored 13 goals in his debut and Zurich won 33:29 against Spanish favourites Ademar Leon. In the end, not even 49 strikes from Schmid were enough to make it to the main round.
Later, it was his EHF Champions League performances that put the Swiss record international caps holder's name on the big stage – as he went to Denmark, playing for BSV Bjerringbro-Silkeborg. He steered BSV to the Danish championship, but left after one year to make his lifetime dream come true: playing in the German Bundesliga. When he signed for Rhein-Neckar Löwen in 2010, nobody could guess that he would stay for 12 years, during which time he was awarded “best player of the Bundesliga” on five occasions.
In his very first year at Löwen, he made it to the EHF FINAL4 at Cologne. “I was not that Andy Schmid which you know now. I just had started to adapt and find my place in the team”, he recalls. Two years later, he was ready – together with stars such as Uwe Gensheimer, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz or Patrick Groetzki, Schmid stood on the winners’ podium of the first ever EHF Finals after beating hosts HBC Nantes in the EHF Cup final. “This was definitely my biggest success, it was the first ever trophy for our ambitious club, and from that moment on, we were ready to win more titles."