Starting tomorrow in Granollers, the Spanish handball team faces its last option to compete in the Paris Olympic Games this coming summer: its ticket is at stake in the Pre-Olympic tournament with three games, three finals, against Bahrain (Thursday, 6:30 p.m.), Slovenia ( Friday, 9:00 p.m.) and Brazil (Sunday, 5:45 p.m.).
In the minds of the players, not to repeat the failure of Rio 2016, when Spain was left without Games for the first time in handball in forty years (since Montreal 1976). In Granollers they compete for one of the two tickets at stake.
After the setback at the European Championship in Germany last January, in which Spain fell in the first phase after losing resoundingly to Croatia and drawing with Austria, Hispanics have been left with no margin for error.
Jordi Ribera has called up 19 players, once again resorting to experience to ensure the shot. The Granollers list highlights the return of captain Gede Guardiola, 39, absent from the European Championship due to a technical decision. He replaces Jan Gurri (Fraikin Granollers), who had relieved the Alicante defender in the European Championship in January.
In this way, Guardiola will once again form the twin towers with his friend Viran Morros, 40, recalling the defensive axis they formed for more than a decade. The Barcelona defensive back, now playing in Switzerland (Winterhur), had already returned to the national team in the European Championship, urgently, replacing the injured Sánchez Migallón, after almost two years of absence.
“Coming back with this group is a source of pride and great excitement,” says Gede Guardiola, who at 39 years old has stopped playing in Germany to return to Asobal, to Nava Handball. “I saw that I was passing trains for which I felt qualified, like the European Championship. Now I feel motivated again. I am going to continue playing, next year I will continue to be active, and I will continue in the national team when they ask me to,” said the player from Alicante.
The call for the Pre-Olympic is made up of 19 players, most of them veterans and experienced. In goal will be Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas (Barça) and Rodrigo Corrales (Veszprém), who also returns to the national team after Ribera left him out of the European Championship.
Ian Tarrafeta (Pays d’Aix) and Agustín Casado (Veszprém) repeat as center backs; On the right side there are two other hard-working players such as Jorge Maqueda (Nantes) and Álex Dujshebaev (Kielcde), as well as Imanol Garciandia (Pick Szeged).
On the left side, Joan Cañellas (Kadeten Schaffhausen) and Dani Dujshebaev repeat, in addition to the aforementioned Viran Morros (Pfadi Winterthur) and another old acquaintance joins, Antonio García (Fraikin Granollers) at 40 years old, in what will be his first performance with the selection at home. It will be the third Pre-Olympic tournament for the brave side from La Llagosta (he was one of those who experienced the 2016 debacle in Sweden).
On the right wing, Ferran Solé (PSG) returns, removed from the European Championship due to Kauldi Odriozola’s injury, and Aleix Gómez (Barça) repeats; on the far left are Ángel Fernández (Limoges) and Dani Fernández (Stuttgart); and for pivots, Ribera calls up Adrià Figueras (Chartres), Abel Serdio (Orlen Wisla Plock), Gede Guardiola (Nava) and Javier Rodríguez (Barça).
Not in the squad – they were not in the European Championship either – are the brothers Djorje and Petar Cikusa (18 years old), two of the great pearls of the Blaugrana quarry and the Spanish team.
