Metz HB adds Xenia Smits to the club and improves the quality with Champions League ahead. Smits leaves HB Ludwigsburg after the economical collapse and joins the familiar club where she already played between 2015 and 2020.
Smits has had several long-time stints in her career, Metz brought her first experience in Champions League and kept the left back in an important role allowing more than 150 goals from the 31-year-old.
In 2020 SG BBM Bietigheim awaited, which later became Ludwigsburg now not a part of the international scene anymore.
– I’m very, very, very happy to be back in Metz. I have many, many good memories at this club and in the Arena. When I think back to my time at Metz, it makes me smile and I’m happy. It’s the best thing that could have happened to me. I’m going to work well with Manu and Katya, with Metz. That’s why I didn’t ask myself many questions about whether it was an option or not, Smits says to the club webpage.
The coach, Emmanuel Mayonnade also has some welcoming words to Smits upon her return.
– It is a great satisfaction and a sincere joy to see Xenia return to the organization today, five years after her departure and after having spent five extraordinary years in the organization where she contributed so largely to the success of Metz Handball at that time. It is an extraordinary opportunity for us in our quest for a full-back, he says to the club website.
Smits has signed for the 2025/26 season and joins Metz in time for a training camp session in Denmark.