Mikael Appelgren (born 6 September 1989) is a Swedish

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player for

Rhein-Neckar Löwen Rhein-Neckar Löwen is a professional handball club founded in 2002, based in Mannheim, Germany. The club competes in the German Handball-Bundesliga and continentally in EHF European League. Rhein-Neckar Löwen play their home games in SAP A ...

. He won silver medals at the 2018 European Championship.

Career

Appelgren started playing handball at

GF Kroppskultur GF, gf or gF may refer to: Arts and entertainment * GuitarFreaks, a music video game series * Ground Floor, an American comedy series created by Bill Lawrence and Greg Malins * ''Gravity Falls'', a Disney TV show * ''Girls' Frontline'', a strateg ...

, before joining

IFK Skövde IFK Skövde is a Swedish handball club from the city of Skövde, whose roots can be traced back to 1907. The current organization, however, got its shape through a reorganization in 1991. The team has been in the Handbollsligan (Swedish highes ...

in 2009. In the 2011–12 season he was part of the Swedish league all-star team. After three seasons at

he joined German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

team MT Melsungen. Here he played for three seasons before joining league rivals

for the 2015–16 season to get more playing time. Here he won the German championship in his first season at the club. This was the first championship in club history. In 2017 he won the league for a second time. In 2018 he was named Swedish handballer of the year. At the end of the 2019–20 season Appelgren was operated for a finger injury. In October 2020 he had to be operated again due to a tendon injury in the shoulder. In December the same year he was on the operation table for a third time; this time due to a cartilage-damaged knee. These injuries made him miss the entire 2020–21 season. In August 2021 he was once again through a knee operation. In March 2022 he was once again part of a match day squad for

National team

He debuted for the Swedish national team in 2011 in a

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

qualification match against Israel. He competed at the

2016 European Men's Handball Championship The 2016 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the twelfth edition and was held for the first time in Poland from 15–31 January 2016. Croatia and Norway were the other applicants in the bidding process. Poland was awarded the champions ...

. Here he acted as a backup for Mattias Andersson. He also represented Sweden at the 2017 World Championship together with Andreas Palicka. After a long time away from handball due to injuries, he was once again part of the Swedish team at the 2023 World Championship. He made his comeback in a preparation match leading up to tournament against Serbia.

References

External links

* 1989 births Living people Swedish male handball players IFK Skövde players MT Melsungen players Rhein-Neckar Löwen players Handball-Bundesliga players Swedish expatriate handball players in Germany Sportspeople from Uddevalla Handball players from Västra Götaland County 21st-century Swedish sportsmen {{Sweden-handball-bio-stub