Denmark's Jacobsen, an Olympic gold medallist from Rio 2016, scooped the men's prize after his performances for both the national side and his German club team THW Kiel.

In 2019 the 31-year-old goalkeeper helped his country to World Championship gold on home soil as captain, while Kiel won the European Handball Federation Cup.

At the World Championship he was named as the all-star team's goalkeeper, after sharing the top save percentage with Norway's Espen Christensen.

However, Landin faced almost 100 more shots at the tournament.

Oftedal, a 28-year-old centre-back, is the captain of Norway and has been recognised with the women's prize for her displays for both her country and Hungarian club Györi Audi ETO KC.

She won the EHF Champions League title with Györi, and performed superbly at the World Championship with Norway despite the team exiting in the semi-finals.

Neither Jacobsen or Oftedal had won the IHF World Player of the Year award before.

Voting for the awards closed yesterday, the final day of the first International Handball Week.

Five nominees for each prize were decided by an expert panel, which comprised of nine representatives from the IHF and nine national coaches.

The award winners were then decided by a public vote.

Two coaches of the year have also been named, with Nikolaj Jacobsen taking the men's prize for guiding Denmark to their first world title.

Emmanuel Mayonnade won the prize for women's teams after steering The Netherlands to the world title in Japan.