Viola Leuchter: “Now we have found our rhythm”

Funnily enough, two times she moved to the previous finalists, but then missed out on qualifying for the EHF FINAL4 in Budapest. In 2024, she transferred from Bayer Leverkusen to SG BBM Bietigheim, and one year later moved from the German champions to Odense Håndbold — and both clubs had just lost the EHF Champions League final to Audi ETO Györ.

In April 2026, Leuchter and Odense failed once again against the Champions League record winners, this time in the quarter-finals. “Maybe I am a bad omen for my clubs, but I am young and still have a lot of time to make it to Budapest,” she admits.

The 2025/26 season started with an unexpected and tough hurdle for her and her teammates at HB Ludwigsburg. It was August 2025 when Viola Leuchter’s whole life and career plan changed within a week — her club went bankrupt. Four months before hosting the World Championship in Germany, Leuchter and the rest did not know where to go on.

“Nobody could prepare for a situation like this, it was so tricky. But, finally, my previous coach at Ludwigsburg, Jakob Vestergaard, contacted me and helped me have a good new perspective with Odense.

“But, still, I moved to a different country with a different language I did not understand, the great team we had in Ludwigsburg came to a sudden end. Everything had fallen apart. But when I arrived at Odense, Jakob told me that there is no pressure on me, that I just shall adapt to the club and the situation — he really gave me positive energy for my unexpected start in Denmark, and he knows the special relationship we had within our team in Ludwigsburg,” says Leuchter looking back.

After winning the cup in Denmark, but failing against Team Esbjerg on the way to the championship title, her club bolstered the squad for the current season with exceptional players such as the EHF Champions League 2025/26 winner Johanna Bundsen — whom Leuchter knew from Ludwigsburg — and past winner and EHF FINAL4 MVP Anna Vyakhireva, arriving from Brest. “Having a roster like this, of course, we aim to make it to Budapest this year,” says Leuchter, who scored 66 goals for Bietigheim in her first top-flight appearance and then 65 for Odense last season.

In the first two matches of the 2026/27 season, she netted five times each against Nyköbing (27:27) and Podravka (31:24). Ahead of the Match of the Week played at Romanian champions Gloria Bistrita on Sunday 20 September at 16:00 CEST (live on EHFTV, geo-blocking may apply), her team is still unbeaten, but lost a surprising point in the opening round, which featured an all-Danish duel. “In crunch time, we made too many mistakes. We could have won, but I am sure now we have found our rhythm.” Even without Vyakhireva, Odense took a clear win against Podravka.

On Sunday, Leuchter expects a tough challenge: “I never played at Bistrita, but we know that they have a fortress at home. Their back-court row with Nina Engel, Johanna Reichert and Danila So Delgado is impressive. Still, I believe we are the light favourites.“

This duel will also bring together both right backs of the German national team, with Engel on the opposite side. “We already texted before the match. Mainly, it was about how we get back to Germany, as our training camp with the national team starts on Monday, before we leave for our test matches in Spain on Wednesday.”

After one season at Odense, Leuchter feels comfortable: “We not only function as a team on the court, but we also established a very good togetherness amongst each other. And like me, the club is highly ambitious, setting high goals, and we are working really hard in every training to achieve those goals. After some problems in the preparation, now we found the rhythm. The goal in the Champions League should be to finish the group phase in first or second position to skip the play-offs, as in the crunch time of a season, every match less counts.”

Despite being only 22, Leuchter has already gained a lot of experience with the national team, having played at two world championships, the EHF EURO 2024 and the Paris 2024 Olympics. Her highlight was winning the silver medal last December at the World Championship. First, Germany ended the 20-year long curse of losing all matches against France by beating them in the semi-finals, then they stood strong in the final against Norway, but ended up not lifting the trophy. Still, it was the first final of a German women’s team in any major competition since the EHF EURO 1994.

“This world championship changed so much. Thanks to the campaign ‘Hands up for more’ we could promote women’s sport in Germany. Now, many of my teammates play for Champions League clubs, which boosts our national team. Winning silver was a cool experience,“ adds Leuchter.

At the Women’s EHF EURO 2026, Germany aim to continue like this, but before that, Leuchter has some Champions League matches ahead — and in the Danish league, they hope to leave current champions Team Esbjerg behind. For Leuchter, this duel is also against a good friend, namely Esbjerg’s German goalkeeper Katharina Filter. “Right now, Kathi is leading by 1-0 in terms of Danish league trophies, but I hope we can level it this season.”

Photos © Torben Andresen (main, fourth in-text), Lau Nielsen (first two in-text), Jozo Cabraja / kolektiff (third in-text)