After the semi-final victory at the European Championships
Curious detail from DHB cabin revealed
January 30, 2026 – 11:04 p.mReading time: 2 min.
The German national handball team is in the final after the semi-final victory over Croatia (31:28). A detail from the cabin could have given the DHB stars particular motivation.
When Julian Köster came into the dressing room cheering after the semi-final victory over Croatia (31:28) at the European Championships, the television cameras filmed a special poster: On the dressing room door there was a large sheet of paper with the sentence: “The heart must be fuller than the pants.”
Apparently this sentence helped national coach Alfred Gíslason motivate his players before the game. In the ARD broadcast, this poster was particularly noticed by the expert and former handball player Dominik Klein. After the pictures from the cabin were shown, Klein asked ARD presenter Alex Schlüter whether he had seen the red heart on the cabin door.
Schlüter said no. “I saw it,” Klein said, “I always look at details like that. I think that was the motivation. It was about who had the bigger heart.” Klein also discussed this with Schlüter before the game: “The Croats always come with their hearts in the right place and passion. I think that was a little motivational help.”
What the poster is actually about has not yet been resolved. Klein is very likely right. The ARD direction was able to quickly find the image again after Klein’s submission and briefly showed a still image.
Schlüter reacted to this and spoke of an interesting detail. “I can only contribute statistics, but thanks to the director.” Then they both read the poster again. After understanding the content, they both laughed heartily. “Fantastic,” Schlüter summarized, “I would have overlooked that.”
