Niclas Ekberg (born 23 December 1988) is a Swedish professional

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 ...

er for

Ystads IF Ystads IF is a professional handball club from Ystad, Sweden. They play in Handbollsligan. They won the Swedish Championship in 1976, 1992, 2022 and 2025. History 1908-1960 Ystads IF was founded in 1908 and took up handball on the programme ...

and

Sweden men's national handball team The Sweden men's national handball team () is Sweden's national team in men's handball and is controlled by the Swedish Handball Association. Its most successful periods were under coaches Curt Wadmark (1948–19 ...

. He is known to be an exceptionally prolific goalscorer and holds many different goalscoring records at his club,

THW Kiel THW Kiel is a professional handball club from Kiel, Germany. Currently, they compete in the Handball-Bundesliga and are the record champion with 23 titles. 2007 and 2012 were the most successful years in the club's history, as THW completed t ...

Career

Ekberg started his career at

IFK Ystad IFK Ystad HK is a Swedish handball club based in Ystad, founded in 1927. History The club won promotion to the top division, at the time known as Allsvenskan, in 1941, but were relegated after one season. They did not return until 1997, when ...

. In the 2008-2009 season he scored the second most goals in the Swedish league and was named ''Årets Komet''. He then joined city rivals

. With Ystad IF he played in the

EHF Challenge Cup The EHF European Cup is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF). It is the third-tier competition of European club handball, after the EHF Champions League and the EHF European League. Foun ...

in the 2009-10 season. In the summer of 2010 he joined Danish side

AG København AG København (former name: AG Håndbold) was a Danish handball club. It was created as fusion of FCK Håndbold and AG Håndbold on June 1, 2010. The fusion was made public in a press meeting on January 7, 2010. On the 31th of July 2012, less th ...

Here he won back-to-back Danish league and Danish cup doubles. When the club became insolvent in July 2012 Ekberg was released of his contract. He then joined

in Germany on a contract until 2015, which was extended in 2014 until 2018. With Kiel he won the 2013, 2017 and 2019

DHB-Pokal The DHB-Pokal (English: German Handball Federation Cup) is an elimination handball tournament held annually in Germany. It is the second most important handball national title in the country after the Handball-Bundesliga championship. DHB-Pokal ...

and the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020 and 2021 German Championships. He also won the 2019-20 EHF Champions League. He scored 15 goals at the

final four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

event, and with 85 goals overall he became the Champions League top scorer. In the 2019-20 season Ekberg reached 1000 Bundesliga goals, and replaced

Nikolaj Jacobsen Nikolaj Bredahl Jacobsen (born 22 November 1971) is a Danish professional handball coach and former handball wing player and currently the coach of the Denmark men's national handball team, Danish national team. He was named World Coach of the Y ...

as the record holder for most club penalty goals, when he scored no. 390. In the 2020-21 season he became the fourth most scoring player for THW Kiel, when he overtook

Uwe Schwenker Uwe Schwenker (born 24 March 1959) is a West German former handball player who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an interna ...

at 1224 goals. On the 33rd round he reached the milestone of scoring 2000 goals in all competitions for the club. In the 4th round of the 2021-22 season he overtook the club all time league top scorer second place, beating his own coach Filip Jicha (1319 goals). The very next game he scored eleven goals against

GWD Minden Grün-Weiß Dankersen-Minden, commonly known as GWD Minden, is a handball club from Minden, Germany, and is competing in the 2. Handball-Bundesliga. History The club was founded on May 31, 1924 in Dankersen, a town of circa 5000 inhabitants. ...

to overtake

Magnus Wislander Hans Einar Magnus Wislander (born 22 February 1964) is a Swedish former handball player, who has been voted ''Handball Player of the Century'' and is widely regarded as one of the best players ever. Since his debut in the national team in 1985 h ...

s record of 1332 league goals and became the club's all time league top scorer. On November 2024 in a Champions League match against

Aalborg Håndbold Aalborg Handball () is a professional handball club from Aalborg, Denmark that competes in the Danish Handball League. Aalborg Håndbold play their home games in the Gigantium arena in Aalborg – known as Jutlander Bank Arena for sponsorship rea ...

he became the top scorer for the club in all competitions with 2125 goals, 1776 of which were league goals. In 2023 after twelve years in Kiel, Ekdahl returned to Sweden to join

Ystads IF HF Ystads IF is a professional handball club from Ystad, Sweden. They play in Handbollsligan. They won the Swedish Championship in 1976, 1992, 2022 and 2025. History 1908-1960 Ystads IF was founded in 1908 and took up handball on the programme i ...

on a three year deal.

Bundesligatable

Source: Player profile At the Handball-Bundesliga

National team

Ekdahl played 18 matches for the Swedish U-19 team and 29 matches for the Swedish U-21 team. His first senior international match was on November 2nd 2008 against Turkey. He was part of the Swedish team that won silver at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. With 50 goals he was the topscorer at the tournament. From 2017 to 2019 he was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the Swedish national team. He retired from this responsibility, when he took a small break from the national team due to familial reasons. He represented Sweden at the

2020 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo. He was also part of the Swedish national team that won the 2022 European Championship. He missed much of the tournament due to a positive

covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

test, and could only return to the team in the final. In the final against Spain at the score 26:26, Sweden got a penalty after regulation, which could determine the match if it was scored. Ekberg stepped up to meet Pérez de Vargas in the goal, and Ekberg scored, taking the gold medals with them to.Sweden. At the 2023 World Championship he finished 4th with the Swedish team. He was selected for the All-star team for the tournament. In October 2023 he announced his retirement from the National team. He did however unretire for the 2025 World Championship. Here Sweden did however have a disappointing tournament, where they finished fourteenth, losing to Brazil and Norway and drawing Portugal in the process.

Titles

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 ...

: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2023 *

DHB-Supercup The DHB-Supercup (English: German Handball Supercup) is an handball tournament held annually between the Handball-Bundesliga champions and the DHB-Pokal champion. Results Total titles won See also * Handball-Bundesliga * DHB-Pokal The DHB- ...

: 2014, 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 *

: 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2022 * Danish League: 2011 and 2012 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

: 2011 and 2012 *

EHF Cup The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previo ...

: 2019 *

EHF Champions League The EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the men's com ...

: 2020 *

European Champion 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 to a ...

2012 *

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

Silver medals 2012

Individual awards

*All-Star Right wing of the World Championship:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

*2012 Olympics topscorer * 2019-20 EHF Champions League Topscorer *Swedish Handballer of the year 2014/15 *''Årets Komet'' in Swedish handball

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekberg, Niclas 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Ystad Swedish male handball players Swedish expatriate handball players in Denmark Swedish expatriate handball players in Germany Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Sweden Olympic silver medalists for Sweden Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Ystads IF players THW Kiel players Handball-Bundesliga players Handball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Handball players from Skåne County 21st-century Swedish sportsmen