In Denmark, handball is more than a sport – it’s engrained into culture. Widely played in schools, followed fanatically on TV and celebrated on the world stage, it’s a game where the names emblazoned on top players’ shirts are chanted, remembered and revered.
But beyond the spotlight are millions of other names the world never sees or hears about.
To mark its 15th anniversary, top Danish handball club Aalborg Håndbold has partnered with the UN World Food Programme on a powerful new campaign – In the Name of Hunger – to highlight the countless people facing hunger through food crises.
Created by independent creative agency Worth Your While, the campaign transformed one of the club’s biggest moments into a platform for global awareness. Instead of celebrating themselves, the team used their international reach to take action on a largely invisible issue. On Saturday 2 May 2026 during Aalborg Håndbold’s anniversary play-off match against Fredericia HK at the Sparekassen Danmark Arena, the campaign unfolded live in front of a national television audience on TV2.
For one match only, players took to the court without their own names or sponsor logos on their shirts. Instead, each shirt carried the name of a person from one of the 18 countries hardest hit by hunger in the world – spanning Democratic Republic of Congo to Madagascar, Syria, Myanmar and Ukraine among others.
They included ‘Garba’ from Nigeria, worn by Olympic, World and European champion Thomas Arnoldsen; ‘Tongadza’ from Mozambique, worn by Juri Knorr; and ‘Bokolitiana’ from Madagascar, worn by Niklas Landin. Each name represents not just an individual, but millions of people facing food insecurity worldwide. The initiative was made possible by the club’s commercial partners, all of whom relinquished their logo space to make room for the UN World Food Programme. In place of commercial branding, the shirts became a canvas for human stories – turning visibility into action.
In the Name of Hunger extended beyond the game itself. Match-worn shirts were signed and auctioned immediately after the final whistle, with all proceeds going to the UN World Food Programme and its work towards Zero Hunger.
Fans were encouraged to donate via QR codes across arena screens and LED boards, as well as through the ShareTheMeal app, creating multiple touchpoints to support the cause in real time, raising over 220,000 DKK equating to over forty thousand meals.
The campaign is supported by a series of intimate social films featuring players wearing the shirts and sharing the stories behind the names on their backs – amplified across broadcast TV, social media and the personal platforms of internationally recognised players including Niklas Landin who has been voted Best Player in the World twice, Sander Sagosen and Juri Knorr.
Andreas Hansen, Director, UN World Food Programme Nordic said: “Aalborg Håndbold is showing what sport can achieve when used in the right way. They are giving their biggest day to those who don’t have one.”
Jan Larsen, Director, Aalborg Håndbold commented: “We could have simply celebrated ourselves. That’s what you often do for an anniversary. We chose something different – to use the platform we’ve built for someone who will never have one themselves.”
Morten Ingemann, CEO & Partner, Worth Your While added: “Jubilees are usually about looking back. We wanted to look at something more important. ‘In The Name of Hunger’ starts from a simple but uncomfortable truth: the names we celebrate are an accident of where we were born. We wanted to use one night – and some of the most-watched shirts in Danish sport – to give space to the names that never get that moment.”
