Helle Thomsen

Helle Thomsen
Personal information
Born (1970-11-30) 30 November 1970
Frederikshavn, Denmark
Nationality Danish
Playing position Centre back
Club information
Current club Denmark (head coach)
Youth career
Team
 Frederikshavn KFUM
Senior clubs
Years Team
 Frederikshavn fI
1988-1991
 Lyngså BK
1991-1992
 Skogn IL
1992-1993
 Drammen HK
1993-1997
 Frederikshavn fI
2001-2004
 Sindal IF
Teams managed
2009-1/2011
 TTH Holstebro (asssistant)
1/2011-2012
 FC Midtjylland (asssistant)
2012–2016
 FC Midtjylland
2014–2015
 Sweden
2016–2019
 Netherlands
2017–2018
 CSM București
2018–2020
 Molde Elite
2020–2021
 Kastamonu Bld. GSK
2021–2022
 Neptunes de Nantes (assistant)
2022–2024
 Neptunes de Nantes
2024–2025
 CSM București
2025–
 Denmark
Medal record
Coach for women's handball
Representing  Sweden
European Championship
2014 Hungary/Croatia
Representing  Netherlands
World Championship
2017 Germany
European Championship
2016 Sweden
2018 France

Helle Thomsen (born 30 November 1970) is a Danish handball coach and former player, who is the current head coach of Denmark women's team.[1][2]

Playing Career

Helle Thomsen started playing handball at Fredrikshavn KFUM at the age of 6. Later she played youth handball at Frederikshavn fI. From 1988 he played for Lyngså BK, who played in the top division at the time. Here she bronze medals in the Danish handball championship in the 1989-90 season.

Later she joined Skogn IL, followed Drammen HK in Norway. In 1993 she returned to her hometown Frederikshavn and joined Frederikshavn fI. Here she won silver medals in the 1996-97 season.

From 2001 to 2004 she acted as the player-coach of the Danish amateur club Sindal IF.[3][4]

Coaching career

Between 2009 and 2012, she served as assistant coach to Niels Agesen in TTH Holstebro. Here he was part of the team that won promotion from the 1st Division in 2010.[5] In 2010 she was offered the head coach position at her hometown club FOX Team Nord, after they had been administratively relegated to the third tier after going bankrupt. She rejected the offer to stay at TTH.[6] 6 months later she became the assistant coach at FC Midtjylland Håndbold under Kenneth Jensen and Ryan Zinglersen.[6]

FC Midtjylland/Sweden

She then was head coach for FC Midtjylland Håndbold between 2012 and 2016, and the Swedish national team between 2014 and 2015 alongside Thomas Sivertsson.[7][8] As head coach, she won the Danish championship twice, the Danish Handball Cup thrice and the EHF Cup Winners' Cup once.[9][10] In addition to that, she led FC Midtjylland to the Final Four tournament in the 2013–2014 Champions League season. She was fired in Midtjylland in 2016 due to 'disagreements over the future strategy'.[11]

With Sweden she won bronze medals at the 2014 European Championship.[12]

Netherlands and Bucharest

In 2016 she became the head coach of the Netherlands women's team. Her first major international tournament was the 2016 European Championsship, where she won silver medals, losing to Norway in the final.[13] A year later she won bronze medals at the 2017 World Championship. Her last tournament with the Netherlands was the 2018 European Championsship, where she once again won bronze medals.[14]

While coaching the Netherlands she also became the head coach at Romanian CSM București. She was however fired within her first season for poor results.[15]

Return to club handball

In 2018 she became the head coach of norwegian club Molde Elite on a two year deal.[16] When her contract expired in 2020, she left the club.[16]

In 2020 she became the head coach of Turkish club Kastamonu Bld. GSK, but just a year later she left the club, due to a clause in her contract, that allowed her to leave a year later.[17] Instead she became the assistant coach and later head coach of French club Neptunes de Nantes.[18][19] She left the club in 2024, after being released of her contract.[19] It was during a turbulent time at the club, where due to economy many players and personal was leaving the club.[20][21]

In 2024 she returned to CSM București to become the head coach again.[20] Thomsen said regarding the offer, that she initially wanted to return to Denmark, but was drawn by the allure of playing in the Champions League.[20]

Denmark

On April 9th, 2025 it was announced that she will take over as the head coach of the Denmark women's team in the summer of 2025, replacing Jesper Jensen.[2] This makes her the only second woman to coach the Danish national team after Else Birkmose, who was the coach from 1963 to 1965.[2] This meant she left her coaching position at CSM București on mutual termination one year before her contract expired.[22] She signed a contract with the Danish national team until 2028.[3]

Titles

As Coach

International

With Sweden
With Netherlands

Club

As player

Private

Helle Thomsen has acted as the foster parent for Danish handballer Sabine Pedersen.[3]

References

  1. ^ EHF profile
  2. ^ a b c Nicolai Dvinge (9 April 2025). "Danmark får ny landstræner". sport.tv2.dk (in Danish). TV2 Danmark. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Michael Sten Jensen (10 April 2025). "Skal du have passet din hund, testet dine sko eller vinde guldmedaljer? Ring til Helle" (in Danish). Danmarks Radio. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  4. ^ DhDB profile
  5. ^ "Danmarks nye landstræner var for 16 år siden med til at føre TTH op i kvindeligaen" (in Danish). Dagbladet Holstebro-Struer. 10 April 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  6. ^ a b "Derfor blev Helle Thomsen aldrig cheftræner i FfI" (in Danish). KanalFrederikshavn. 28 December 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  7. ^ Vandor, Daniel (29 July 2015). "Helle Thomsen slutar som svensk förbundskapten". Svenska Handbollförbundet (in Swedish). Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  8. ^ Dons, Martin (29 August 2016). "FCM Håndbold og Helle Thomsen stopper samarbejdet". www.fcm-haandbold.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  9. ^ "Damer A: Nya Förbundskaptensteamet klart". Svenska Handbollförbundet (in Swedish). 22 April 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  10. ^ "BLÅ BOG: Helle Thomsen har været vidt omkring". Ritzau (in Danish). Dagbladet Holstebro-Struer. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Flere års magtkamp i kulissen: Derfor blev FCM's succestræner fyret". sport.tv2.dk (in Danish). TV2 Danmark. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Gullden leads Sweden to first EHF EURO bronze". huncro2014.ehf-euro.com. 21 December 2014. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  13. ^ "Heja Norge for the seventh time". swe2016.ehf-euro.com. 18 December 2016. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  14. ^ Bronze match match report - EHF
  15. ^ "Thomsen fik kniven i Bukarest: 'Jeg har lært at leve med presset'" (in Danish). Danmarks Radio. 17 March 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  16. ^ a b Nikolaj Hennecke Jensen (19 January 2020). "Fra verdensstjerner og medaljer til Molde og alene af sted på udebaneture: Helle Thomsen har nydt årene i Molde" (in Danish). hbold.dk. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  17. ^ Palmqvist, Fredrik (10 March 2021). "Helle Thomsen och turkiska Kastamonu bryter kontraktet". Handbollskanalen (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  18. ^ Ole Fink Mejlgaard (23 February 2022). "Nordjyde forfremmes. Helle Thomsen får roret i fransk klub" (in Danish). Nordjyske. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  19. ^ a b Jacob Nalerius (30 November 2023). "Confirmed: Thomsen leaves Nantes after the season". GOHandball. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  20. ^ a b c "Fyret! Nu vender dansk toptræner tilbage til storklub". TV2 Nord. 15 July 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  21. ^ "LFH : les Neptunes de Nantes déposent le bilan" (in French). Le Telegramme. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  22. ^ "Helle Thomsen bliver fuldtidslandstræner". sport.tv2.dk (in Danish). TV2 Danmark. 1 July 2025. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
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