Helle Thomsen

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.

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.

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. 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 months later she became the assistant coach at FC Midtjylland Håndbold under Kenneth Jensen and Ryan Zinglersen. As head coach, she won the Danish championship twice, the Danish Handball Cup thrice and the EHF Cup Winners' Cup once. 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'.

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

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 Championship, where she won silver medals, losing to Norway in the final. A year later she won bronze medals at the 2017 World Championship. Her last tournament with the Netherlands was the 2018 European Championship, where she once again won bronze medals.

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.

Return to club handball In 2018 she became the head coach of norwegian club Molde Elite on a two year deal. When her contract expired in 2020, she left the club. Instead she became the assistant coach and later head coach of French club Neptunes de Nantes. She left the club in 2024, after being released of her contract.

In 2024 she returned to CSM București to become the head coach again. 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. She signed a contract with the Danish national team until 2028.

On September 20th, 2025 she had her debut match; a 39-23 win in a friendly against Iceland. At her first major international tournament for Denmark, the 2025 World Women's Handball Championship, they went out in the quarterfinal to France after winning all matches in the group stages. The Danish team was affected by a lot of players missing the tournament including goalkeepers Sandra Toft and Althea Reinhardt and pivots Sarah Iversen and Rikke Iversen. This was the first time since 2019 that Denmark left a major international tournament without any medals.

Titles As Coach International With Sweden European Women's Handball Championship: Bronze medals: 2014 With Netherlands World Women's Handball Championship: Bronze medals: 2017 European Women's Handball Championship: Silver medals: 2016 Bronze medals: 2018

Club Danish Women's Handball Cup Winner: 2012, 2014, 2015 Danish Women's Handball League Winner: 2013, 2015 Silver medals: 2014, 2016 EHF Cup Winners' Cup Winner: 2015

As player Danish Women's Handball League Silver medals: 1996-97 Bronze medals: 1989-90

Private Helle Thomsen has acted as the foster parent for Danish handballer Sabine Pedersen.