Magnusson’s game: Training one-on-one situations 100 times per session

“Because handball is so popular here, we have an incredible percentage of people playing handball — and if the national team is successful, it's a huge boost for all children to play handball too,” says Ómar Ingi Magnusson, one of the stars of the current Icelandic generation who has followed in the footsteps of the legendary Olafur Stefansson and shifted handball to a new level with his one-on-one style full of speed and feints.

In this latest edition of the exclusive EHF series “Handball through my eyes”, the 28-year-old left-hander from SC Magdeburg talks about how he has trained his speciality since he was a child and how SCM coach Bennet Wiegert perfected this and his style of play.

As a child and teenager, Magnusson, like many other young Icelanders, played handball and football at the same time. At the age of 13 or 14, he made the decision to focus on handball.

“I had handball training twice a day and soccer training once, which was too much,” he says today.

Magnusson played for his home club Selfoss since he was a child, and made his debut in the Icelandic first division at the age of 16.

“In the men's team, I often played on the wing because I was still quite small back then, in the youth teams I was a right back. My huge advantage: I learned the very special techniques and variations of shots from two different positions, which benefitted me in my later career. For me, it was less about strength and more about finesse, feints and a good handling of the ball. As a youth player, I also benefitted a lot from the older ones,” Magnusson explains.

The left-hander developed his greatest strength as a youth player: his outstanding one-on-one game, in which he is now one of the best players in the world. With his pace, breakthroughs, but also his eye for his teammates, he is a leading player in the Icelandic national team and at SC Magdeburg, where he has played since 2020.

“We had very special training for one-on-one situations in Selfoss: I had to do it between 80 and 100 times per training session, which gives you incredible confidence and routine. That was our style of play back then, my way of playing in order to be successful. That's how I learned to play handball,” he adds.

If you're Icelandic, left-handed and a backcourt player, there is of course one role model you cannot ignore: Olafur Stefansson.

“I never played with him, but he was my U20 national coach for one and a half years and he taught me a lot. He had an outstanding style of play and the perfect mindset for professional handball,” says Magnusson. “I also learned a lot from Ivano Balic. In general, I watched a lot of handball on TV, and tried to learn what the stars could do.”

In 2014 Magnusson moved from Selfoss to Valur in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, where he won the Icelandic Cup, before moving to Denmark at the age of 19, to Aarhus for two seasons and then to Aalborg, where he became champion and cup winner.

“I really wanted to go abroad, I didn't care about the club at first. Aarhus wanted me, so I moved there. That was an important step in my development, even if it didn't go so well at first, but later I made significant progress and didn't find my feet any better in the league.”

During this time, the Icelander developed into one of the best backcourt players in the Danish league. His dynamic play and his ability to both score goals and provide assists made him an important part of the team. A move to the German Bundesliga was only a matter of time. And then SCM Magdeburg called.

“Playing in Germany is different to Denmark, the league is much more demanding. It took me a while to integrate — partly because of the language — but then it worked out really well,” Magnusson says.

The crucial question is: was Magnusson specifically brought in to build up this then formative one-on-one game in Magdeburg, or was the Icelander's style of play formative for SCM?

“I think it was both,” says Magnusson. ”Our coach Bennet Wiegert has a system that is based on high speed, breakthroughs and my speciality one-on-one. I fit in perfectly with this system, which is probably why I was signed. But we all developed this system further in order to become even more successful. You can definitely say that it's a perfect fit for me at SCM.”

Success for Magdeburg came with Magnusson. In his very first season in Germany, he became the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 274 goals, steered SCM to the EHF European League title and a few months later won the first of three club world championship trophies. He became German champion in his second season, and his goals in the 2022/23 season paved  Magdeburg’s way to qualify for the EHF FINAL4 of the Champions League for the first time — although when his teammates celebrated the title, he was unable to help them on the court due to an injury. In 2022, Magnusson became the top scorer at the EHF EURO, and won the German Cup in 2023.

Added to this was the outstanding teamwork with his compatriot and congenial playmaker Gisli Kristjansson, who had moved to Magdeburg around six months before him but was out for several months due to injury.

“As an Icelandic duo, we naturally get on very well on and off the court. He has a similar style of play to me that fits. But in general, in a functioning system it's not about individual players or positions, but how you perform as a team. Gisli and I have our roles in the team, important roles, but in a team sport like handball it's all about helping each other,” Magnusson adds.

What Magnusson also likes about Wiegert is that he gives the players the individual freedom to develop within the framework and allows the players to participate in the development of the system.

“Benno is someone who aims to improve each player individually, but always has the game system in mind. We have our rhythm and our routines, which also help us when we fall behind. We don't bury our heads in the sand, but continue to play our system. You don't have to think much, you just have to do what you've trained over and over again.”

Overall, Magnusson and Kristjansson benefit from their domestic playing system.

“In Iceland, we focus on pace, first and second waves out of a stable defence. It's all about easy goals and not always going into the positional attack, which can be very tiring,” Magnusson says.

In addition to his one-on-one skills, Magnusson is also known to be an ice-cold scorer from the penalty line.

“You have to get to know the goalkeepers. Everyone is different. Converting a penalty looks much easier than it is. There's a lot of training behind it. And you have to accept that not every penalty will go into the net, even if you miss two or three in a row. You just have to keep calm and keep going.”

However, Magnusson does not believe he has reached his peak yet.

“Of course I still have goals, I want to get better, I want to make my team — whether Iceland or Magdeburg — better. I want to win titles, because I don't play handball to finish second or third. I always want to be first. And I really enjoy playing this role.”

That is why he is also wondering why things are not always going so well for the national team at the moment; Iceland missed the quarter-finals at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, and finished only fifth in their main round group at the Men’s EHF EURO 2024. That said, they have booked their place at the EHF EURO 2026 after four wins from four matches in the Qualifiers so far.

“With our current squad, we can beat any team in the world, but we can also lose to any opponent. Recently, we didn't play the way we had planned. We have a huge chance of achieving something, but I think we need to be even more focused,” Magnusson believes.

But still, there is the question why so many Icelandic handball stars become outstanding coaches, such as Dagur Sigurdsson, Alfred Gislason and Gudmundur Gudmundsson.

“Everyone is very different in his style and character. But what they all have in common is this fire, this love for handball,” says Magnusson.

His own love for the sport is likely to see him following in their footsteps.

“I've already thought about it, of course, and I'll probably become a coach. But before that, I want to spend a few more years on the court,” he concludes.

Photos © kolektiff; Eroll Popova