Six coaches who shape the face of the Women’s EHF EURO 2026

Suzana Lazović — Montenegro

First coaching job: 2024, Alba Féhérvar KC (HUN)

Coaching Montenegro since: August 2024

Group A opponents: Hungary (Vladimir Golovin), Iceland (Arnar Pétursson), Slovenia (Dragan Adžić)

Achievements as head coach:

• 8th place at Women’s EHF EURO 2024 with Montenegro

• 8th place at 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship with Montenegro

Heading into the 2024/25 season, Suzana Lazović had just started on the bench of Hungarian side Alba Féhérvar KC for her first job as head coach at a senior level, when an even bigger opportunity came her way. Bojana Popović had stepped down as head coach of the Montenegro national team after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games — and Lazović was destined to take over.

As a coach, Lazović’s experience was limited, having previously worked with youth teams in Montenegro and China. But as a player, she had seen it all, despite retiring at the age of 25 because of injuries. She won the EHF Champions League with Buducnost and took Olympic silver and EHF EURO gold with Montenegro, all in 2012. Lazović will be the only head coach at the Women’s EHF EURO 2026 who has won the European title as a player.

Under Lazović’s guidance, Montenegro placed eighth at both the EHF EURO in 2024 and the IHF World Championship last year. They clearly won their group in the EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers. Lazović will face Slovenia with fellow Montenegrin head coach Dragan Adžić in the last match of the preliminary round. Adžić was head coach of Buducnost for almost the entire time Lazović competed as a line player for the club.

Ole Gustav Gjekstad — Norway

First coaching job: 1998, Larvik HK (NOR)

Coaching Norway since: January 2025

Group B opponents: Romania (Ovidiu Mihăilă), Switzerland (Knut Ove Joa), North Macedonia (Igor Marković)

Achievements as head coach:

• gold at 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship with Norway

• 3x winner EHF Champions League Women with Vipers Kristiansand (2021-23)

When Ole Gustav Gjekstad took an indefinite break from coaching after leaving Larvik HK in 2015, the best was yet to come. The former right wing returned three years later and led Vipers Kristiansand to the top of Europe, winning three consecutive EHF Champions League titles. In his last season as club coach, he reached another top-flight final — with Danish side Odense Håndbold in 2025.

By then, Gjekstad had already been appointed head coach of a national team for the first time. He took over record 10-time EHF EURO champions Norway from legendary coach Þórir Hergeirsson, who had won 17 medals in his 15-year reign. Hergeirsson left him with big shoes to fill, but the transition was near seamless. Gjekstad passed his first test with flying colours when Norway eased to the 2025 world title, winning all their matches by nine goals or more, except for the three-goal victory (23:20) in the final against Germany.

Now aiming for their fourth straight European title and 11th overall, Gjekstad is aware that Norway’s dominance is not a given. In September, they lost the final of the inaugural Women’s EHF EURO Cup Finals against Denmark, a warning that winning trophies in handball is never guaranteed. Even for a head coach of Norway.

Helle Thomsen — Denmark

First coaching job: 2012, FC Midtjylland (DEN)

Coaching Denmark since: July 2025

Group C opponents: Spain (Joaquín Rocamora), Türkiye (David Ginesta Montes), Greece (Danilos Menelaos)

Achievements as head coach:

• gold at Women’s EHF EURO Cup Finals 2026 with Denmark

• silver at Women’s EHF EURO 2016 with the Netherlands

• bronze at Women’s EHF EURO 2014 with Sweden, and 2018 with the Netherlands

• bronze at 2017 IHF Women’s World Championship with the Netherlands

Helle Thomsen had not coached a national team for nearly seven years when the Danish Handball Federation signed her as Jesper Jensen’s successor in July 2025. It was the first time in 60 years that Denmark would have a female head coach, after Else Birkmose led the team for two years in the mid-1960s.

Thomsen started her coaching career at Midtjylland in her native Denmark and was in charge of clubs in Norway, Türkiye, France and, most recently, Romania. She left CSM Bucuresti in the summer of 2025 after signing with the Danish federation and added Montenegrin legend Bojana Popović as assistant to her staff. Alongside that job, Popović took over at Thomsen’s former club CSM Bucuresti a few months later.

At the 2025 IHF World Championship, Denmark won all preliminary and main round matches but were beaten by France in the quarter-finals — the first time since 2019 they left a major tournament without a medal. But Denmark then went all the way in the Women’s EHF EURO Cup 2026, winning eight from eight matches, including the final against Norway (34:30) last September. That result immediately raised the question whether Denmark, led by Thomsen, can finally win their fourth EHF EURO title, and first since 2002.

Monique Tijsterman — Austria

First coaching job: 1993, HV Aalsmeer (NED)

Coaching Austria since: February 2024

Group D opponents: Croatia (Ivica Obrvan), Netherlands (Henrik Signell), Czechia (Tomáš Hlavatý, Daniel Čurda)

Achievements as head coach:

• 9th place at 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship with the Netherlands

It was a memorable moment when Austria got a new head coach following the 2023 IHF World Championship — for two reasons. Herbert Müller had been in the job for 20 years, and his successor was Monique Tijsterman, the team’s first ever female coach.

Once a promising Dutch player who had to end her career at the age of 21 following multiple knee injuries, the versatile Tijsterman soon turned her focus to development and coaching. She became one of the driving forces of the HandbalAcademie, the highly regarded talent school of the Dutch federation. And she made her name as the first female coach to steer a men’s team into the group phase of an EHF club competition, with OCI Lions in the Men’s EHF Cup 2015/16. Tijsterman is also known as an EHF and IHF lecturer and for her role in the EHF Master Coach programme.

Under new coach Tijsterman, who previously led the Netherlands as interim coach at the 2021 IHF World Championship, Austria finished 14th when co-hosting the EHF EURO in 2024, and 16th at the World Championship in 2025. Just like at the World Championship a year ago, Austria share a group again at the EHF EURO 2026 with the Netherlands, who field a handful of players coached by Tijsterman in their teenage years.

Sébastien Gardillou — France

First coaching job: 1997, ASPTT Limoges (FRA)

Coaching France since: September 2024

Group E opponents: Poland (Arne Senstad), Faroe Islands (Claus Mogensen), Ukraine (Bohdan Panchenko)

Achievements as head coach:

• bronze at 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship with France

• 4th place at Women’s EHF EURO 2024

When Sébastien Gardillou was appointed as France head coach in 2024, he had already spent some two decades working in various capacities with the country’s women’s national teams. After four years in club handball, he first signed with the federation as the women’s youth coach in 2001. Four years later, he became the video analyst of the senior team.

After a return to club handball in 2010 and coaching Metz Handball and OGC Nice, Gardillou joined the national team’s coaching staff under Olivier Krumbholz as an assistant in 2016 — the year that marked the start of a golden era. Under Krumbholz, France won Olympic (2020), world (2017, 2023) and European (2018) titles, and a range of other medals at major championships.

Krumbholz stepped down after France took silver at their home Olympics in Paris in 2024, and Gardillou was his natural successor. He led France to the semi-finals of the EHF EURO 2024 but lost the third-place match against Hungary. However, France did take bronze at the IHF World Championship last year, beating co-hosts Netherlands in overtime. France have been in all five EHF EURO semi-finals since 2016, and there is no reason why they cannot keep the streak going under Gardillou in 2026.

Tomas Axnér — Sweden

First coaching job: 2012, Lugi HF (SWE)

Coaching Sweden since: September 2024

Group F opponents: Germany (Markus Gaugisch), Slovakia (Jan Benadik), Serbia (Sandra Kolaković)

Achievements as head coach:

• 3rd place at EHF FINAL4 Women 2025 with Team Esbjerg

• 4th place at 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship with Sweden

Leading Sweden since 2020 makes Tomas Axnér one of the longest serving head coaches at the Women’s EHF EURO 2026. Getting involved in the national team marked his first job in women’s handball, having started his coaching career at the men’s team of Lugi HF in the 2010s.

Axnér took over the national team from Henrik Signell, who is the current head coach of the Netherlands, one of Sweden’s potential opponents in the main round. Sweden finished 11th in their first EHF EURO under Axnér in 2020, then beat the Netherlands in the 5/6 placement match in 2022 and again in 2024 — results which left the team still chasing their first EHF EURO medal since taking bronze in 2014.

Next to his national team duties, Axnér became the head coach of Team Esbjerg in 2024. He steered them to third place at the EHF FINAL4 in his first season, matching the Danish club’s best ever result in the EHF Champions League. At that event, Axnér and his daughter Tyra, who was playing for Metz Handball, became the first father-daughter duo to compete at the EHF FINAL4 with different clubs. At the Women’s EHF EURO 2026, though, the Axnérs will be on the same team.

Photos © Sabin Malisevschi, OSCG, kolektiff images, FF Handball / Brool Video, Mathilda Schuler / BILDBYRÅN