If Italy can secure a place at the EHF EURO 2026, it will not be the only tournament to which they return after a long break, as they ended a 28-year wait to play the World Championship this year. They had a solid campaign at the global event, winning three games — two in the preliminary round and one in the main round — to rank 16th out of 32 teams. With that, they beat their placement at the 1997 World Championship, 18th.
“It was a nice experience playing in front of so many people and it was also, I think, important for Italy to show the world that we can play handball,” says Prantner. “We made a big step with this World Championship. Now also the other teams know that in Italy we play handball.”
Due to his ACL injury, Prantner did not play the decisive qualifiers against Montenegro, and was watching at home as his teammates celebrated the result.
“I only watched it on TV and I was very happy for the team, for everybody, because it was such a long way to come back to this World Championship. I saw on the television the players crying, and I was really happy in this moment,” recalls Prantner, who did not know for sure if he would be ready to play in time for the World Championship — but he was determined to do so.
“The coach wrote me immediately after we qualified. He asked me if I will be ready to play the World Championship and I answered him ‘yes.’ And then of course, my goal was to come back to this World Championship, and in the end, the first games that I played after my injury were at this World Championship, so everything went perfect for me.”