Twenty-seven years, since April 1996, BM Granollers has not lifted a continental trophy. When the Atavin, Viver, Soler, Ugalde, Jaime GarcÃa and Xavi Pérez, directed by Manolo Montoya, achieved the second EHF of the club, in neighboring La Llagosta, Antonio GarcÃa Robledo (1984) began to stand out, who two years later, At 14, he would enter the Granollers youth academy. After 20 seasons in the elite, the La Llagosta canyon is now, at 39 years old, the guru and spiritual guide of the irreducible Vallesans, Fraikin Granollers, the young revelation team and candidate for the European League, the current version of that EHF , the second European competition.
The European League would be for GarcÃa “a very beautiful cherry” to his career – which he plans to end in 2025, with 41 -; an award that “would be above what I would have never dreamed of: achieving such an important title, my first European trophy, and also with the club of my life, which is the most beautiful and significant thing a player can ask for”, he tells La Vanguardia the captain in the hours before the semifinal duel of the final four against Göppingen (6:00 p.m.).
For the humble Granollers, with 1,800 members and a very tight budget of 0.5 million –12 or 14 times less than that of its rivals, Göppingen (5.2), Füchse (6) and Montpellier (8.6)–, having reached the final quartet of the EHF is already a complete success. Nobody gave a euro for them, and they have been able to beat all their rivals; among them, the great favourite, Flensburg, who they knocked down with an exhibition in the quarterfinals, an 8 at home. It was a punch from the poor at the table of the rich.
“The three rivals, by budget, by names, by internationals and by European honors are above us. There is not point of comparation. Obviously, people may think that if we beat Flensburg, fourth in the Bundesliga, we have to beat 14th (Göppingen), but handball isn’t math. We have been like this throughout the competition, without being favourites, and we love reaching the final four like this, â€says GarcÃa, who is experiencing the third stage at his club, after a long journey through eight teams and five leagues: Ademar, PSG, Szeged, Kolding, Barça, Bucharest, Granollers, Nantes and back at home (since 2020).
“Without a doubt the best moment of my career is now: these last four years at Granollers, with everything we are going through competitively and humanely, with the club of my life, with the people I love close by, I am enjoying it more than ever. â€, confesses GarcÃa, who at 39 is experiencing a second youth, spiritual father of the group, chosen for the fourth time as Asobal’s best left-back, and the team’s top scorer with crack numbers (81 in the EHF, 5.78 on average; and 154 in the League, 6.16 per game).
“Is awesome. I would never have thought that I would be playing after 35, and that my best handball and my greatest enjoyment would be from that age, which coincides with this last stage in Granollers”, points out GarcÃa, who, without raising his voice too much, warns that being the poorest and least known could make a mess in Flensburg.
“We are going with the utmost enthusiasm, with the same character and the same predisposition: we have not been favorites at any time against anyone, but we have always been the alternative, and we have managed to prevail against all our rivals. And if we have been able to, we will try to continue doing so. If we are at our best level, we can compete against anyoneâ€.
