– Sander Sagosen is the world’s best duel player. He has held a playroom with all the defenders at the World Cup, said NRK handball expert Håvard Tvedten.

The 21-year-old has had an incredible championship run in France. 38 assists and 36 goals are the results after seven games. This provides an average of 10.5 goal points per game, and shows how important young Trønder is to the national team.

Teammate Christian O’Sullivan remembers the first time he met the offensive lineman at a recruiting meeting several years ago.

– Even then he had big dreams. When you don’t really know who this player from Charlottenlund is, you think it’s cool that he’s so offensive. “But an extraordinarily good player and very important for us,” O’Sullivan told NRK.

– He is just a complete player and that is the most difficult thing to play against, because anything can happen, added his teammate.

Comparable to Karabatik

Tvedten points out one point in Sagosen’s game that makes him better in dueling games than others.

– What’s special about Sagosen is that he is very dynamic. There are many great duelists who are good at feinting. Nikola Karabatic is an example, but he often moves to the right. Sander can go to either side.

The protagonist himself is flattered by the comparison.

– That’s big. He is perhaps the greatest handball player today. It’s really flattering to be compared to him.

NRK handball expert Øystein Havang strongly agrees with Tvedten’s assessment of Sagosen.

– He has a large repertoire and is very good at moving to either side. He acted like a boxer in a boxing ring, he kept a proper distance from his opponent.

Is he the world’s best duelist?

– In this championship he was the best.

– Can be more physically rough

It is precisely the comparisons with France’s Nikola Karabatic that Sagosen will hear a lot in the years to come. This summer it became clear that Sagosen is ready for top flight club Paris Saint-Germain from the 2017/2018 season. France’s Karabatic is the biggest star there. He has won everything there is to win in the world of handball. Olympic gold, WC gold and European Championship gold are on his list of achievements, along with several league championships. In addition, he was twice named the best handball player in the world.

Tvedten believes Sagosen is already one of the world’s best handball players, but still lacks the best.

He believes there are similarities between Sagosen and Karabatic’s careers.

– The best comparison I see is Karabatic and Sander. Karabatic won the Champions League before he was 20, and had the same development as Sander now, Tvedten said.