Volker Zerbe

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Volker Zerbe (born 30 June 1968 in Lemgo, Germany) is a German former handball player and coach. He spent his entire professional playing career with TBV Lemgo, debuting in the Bundesliga in 1986 and retiring in 2006. A towering right back at 2.11 m, Zerbe captained Lemgo and was known as one of the best defensive players of his era.

For the German national team, he earned 284 appearances from 1987 to 2004. His major honors include a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the European Championship title in 2004. He is considered part of Lemgo’s “golden generation” alongside Daniel Stephan, Christian Schwarzer, Florian Kehrmann and Stefan Kretzschmar. In 2024, Zerbe was inducted into the European Handball Federation Hall of Fame, and in 2005 he received Germany’s Silbernes Lorbeerblatt.

After retiring, Zerbe stayed in handball in leadership roles. He served as TBV Lemgo’s sporting director (and interim coach in 2007) and later became sporting director at Füchse Berlin from 2013. His nephew Lukas Zerbe is also a professional handball player.