The central defender of the nationwide staff, who has been within the World Cup since this week, was going to have his first expertise overseas in Belarus when Russia invaded Ukraine. The sanction to the membership that had signed him pressured him to rethink his future and he ended up higher: within the Bundesliga
It was the contract of his life. At the very least for the second. Simply over a yr in the past, in December 2021, Augustine Married, a “handball madman” who had traveled half of Spain to be knowledgeable, lastly discovered a spot for himself, on the age of 25, in a Champions League staff, the Belarusian Meshkov Brest. He needed to to migrate, however in his sport that isn’t an choice: he’s an obligation. In the summertime of 2022 he would arrive at a membership that had overwhelmed the billionaire PSG within the group stage and had reached the spherical of 16 of one of the best European competitors. As mentioned: it was the contract of his life. However in February, Russia determined to invade the Ukraine, the bombs started to fall on kyiv and, in an odd butterfly impact, Casado misplaced his probability. The European Handball Federation (EHF) expelled the Russian and Belarusian groups: it is over.
“When the warfare broke out, I used to be half hung up. I needed to search for a brand new undertaking, however I did not wish to rush it: I needed it to assist me proceed to enhance, to compete on the highest stage,” remembers the person who spent weeks deciding his new vacation spot. A fragile uncertainty, an important second. And a bathe of unparalleled affords. As a result of Casado’s story truly has a trick. Opposite to what it could appear, the battle in Ukraine didn’t cease his profession; one of the best. From that Belarusian Meshkov Brest he went on to play within the highly effective Bundesliga and, beginning subsequent yr, within the Hungarian Veszprem, an everyday staff within the Champions League Remaining 4. The rationale for such a curious rise is just one and it’s referred to as Spain.
And it’s that, after signing that contract of his life, Casado accomplished a superb European, he was a benchmark for the choice that hung the cash, and, when he ran out of apparatus, his telephone didn’t cease ringing. “It’s clear {that a} event like this opens many doorways for you, it makes you meet lots of people. Though what leads you to go to the nationwide staff and obtain affords is your work,” he burdened in a dialog with EL MUNDO earlier than beginning a World Cup within the one that may have already got one other cache. Earlier than he was little or no identified within the elite, he had hardly been worldwide, he had not performed within the Champions League; now he not The staff’s rivals within the group stage, for instance, Montenegro (Thursday the twelfth), Chile (Saturday the 14th) and Iran (Monday the sixteenth) already know that, after Ral Entrerros and subsequent to Joan Caellas, Spain has one other central assure. Issues of the miracle that he directs Jordi Ribera: one of the best in historical past retires and whoever enters in his place is ready to preserve the extent.
“One of many keys is the work that the technical workers is doing with all of the gamers who can enter the squad. Once I did not come I already felt concerned, I felt inside. Fortunately in Spain we’ve got an excellent stage of gamers and I feel that the technical workers is making the generational change as much less traumatic as potential. As well as, within the nationwide staff the group has at all times prevailed over every thing and that continues to be the case”, analyzes Casado, who was born in Carboneras, in Almeria, subsequent to the seaside notorious for the El Algarrobico lodge and needed to construct a profession slowly, in Andalusian groups equivalent to Pozoblanco, within the decrease classes of Huesca, within the Silver Honor Division with Palma del Río or Nava and at last in He poked with the Logroo, the place he poked his head. From a handball household, nephew of one other skilled, Alex Marcelo, Huesca winger, after a very long time he’s the place he deserves. “I’ve at all times seen lots of handball, it is my sport, it is my ardour. Once I began I paid lots of consideration to Ral Entrerros and that is why right this moment I am much more proud to be right here,” concludes Casado, the handball participant whose life was modified by a warfare. race. For the higher.
Handball issues: there may be at all times a World Cup that counts extra. The one that’s often held the yr after an Olympic Video games invitations leisure, it’s the event through which many nations summon younger gamers to find the elite. This one, the one held the yr earlier than the Video games, is the essential one. The champion could have a hard and fast place for Paris 2024, however, as well as, there shall be six locations for the Pre-Olympic at stake. Spain, which retains the reminiscence of his absence from the 2016 Rio Video games latest, has set the quarterfinals because the aim to enter the struggle for these tickets. Within the first section, solely Montenegro ought to concern you, however later you’ll very presumably run into France, Poland and Slovenia. Ah, the obstacles.