“I like to make plans with my girlfriend”, says Pablo Urdangarin (Barcelona, 2000), who gave an interview this Saturday after completing his training period at Barça. He has signed with Fraikin Granollers for the next season. He assures that he feels that he has “the head to get” where he wants to go.
The son of the Infanta Cristina and Iñaki Urdangarin says that as a handball player he has “learned a lot” from his father and stresses that he did not start playing due to paternal influence. asked by How do you personally handle the situation of feeling continuously observed? from outside the sports environment, the nephew of Felipe VI He emphasizes that he does not have this perception.
“I don’t notice it much, I try to do what’s mine,” he says, and again takes his father and handball as a reference: “I know that people will compare me to how good my father was, but I prefer to think about mine, improve as a player and see how far I can go. I don’t like that people compare me, but I understand that it is done”, he points out.
He has grown up with handball, a sport he enjoyed as a child, both at school and at the club, and it has always been present in his life. “I’m trying to dedicate myself to what I like,” he sums up.
Pablo Urdangarin attended his meeting with the Efe agency at the Joan Gamper Sports City, wearing a Barça corporate polo shirt, shorts and classic handball shoes, the gray Adidas Samba.
And he recalled that he started playing handball “at a very young age” at the French Lyceum, although he had to leave it temporarily when his family moved to the United States, because there was no possibility of continuing to practice it.
The handball player grandson of Juan Carlos I lived in Barcelona for the first nine years of his life (2000-2009), then in Washington (2009-2012) and later in Geneva, where his family settled before returning to the Catalan capital. . “When I returned to Europe, I was able to continue playing. Then I was in Germany (Hannover) and that’s when I realized what I wanted to do and I took it more seriously,” he says.
Pablo Urdangarin has no memories of his father as a player: “He retired before I was born, I am from 2000 and he retired that summer, when my mother was pregnant with me. I have not seen him play, but what They tell me it was very good”. Asked if his father has given him a “rattle” with handball, the new Granollers player smiles: “Yes, yes. He taught me matches and I’ve also been looking for them on my own and they keep appearing, it’s a bit strange for me to see him play, but I love it”.
ensures Pablo Urdangarin that he has learned a lot from his father, not only as a player, but also the mentality he had to play, “of wanting to be the best, of continuing to work every day and, for example, of how to manage playing again after an injury , which is very difficult.”
Study ‘Sport Management’
Educationally, he studies ‘Sport Management’, “a kind of business administration, but related to sports” and his goal is to finish his university degree and then continue enjoying handball as long as he can. “I don’t have much of a plan yet,” she admits.
But when asked if returning to Barça could be part of that plan, Pablo Urdangarin’s eyes light up and he admits that it is “the best club in the world”, and that in the end “any player wants to return to Barça or play at Barça at any time in his career”.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play and, who knows, maybe at some point in my life I’ll have the opportunity to return. But now comes a very important chapter in my life, which is starting with Granollers, and I really want to give it everything counts.
The change was raised when his contract with Barça ended. “It’s when you plan a lot of things, you have doubts and you don’t know what will happen next year. You talk to the coaches, you see the options you have at the club and depending on what they tell you, you start looking for things,” he insists.
Pablo Urdangarin is aware that in his position, that of the far right, at Barça he had two of the best in the world ahead of him, Alex Gómez and Blaz Janc, from whom he acknowledges that he has learned a lot.
His idea is to play, now that he is young, and “improve everything he can”. He believes that Granollers will do “very well”, and praises the figure of his new coach, Antonio Rama, whom he describes as “an incredible coach” and who has signed “a brutal year” with the Catalan team.
“I really want to start now, to train now and improve as much as possible. Then the future will come, I think we shouldn’t talk about the future, but rather the present and enjoying it”, he adds. He remembers that he has had the opportunity to live in different parts of the world and that this has helped him not to be afraid of move around to other countries to play.
“I’m lucky that next year I’m going to stay in Barcelona, close to my people, and I’ll be more comfortable, but I don’t rule out (in the future) going abroad, we’ll see,” he adds. Asked about the coach who has marked him the most in his short career, Pablo Urdangarin talks about Iker Romero, a former Barça player who managed him through the Hannover youth academy in 2018.
“He was the first serious coach I had and he helped me a lot to improve as a player and as a person. He also helped me mentally how to play outside of Spain, in a new country where I didn’t speak the language well. It was a year that helped me a lot to mature and also to improve as a player”, he insists.
As a player is defined as “fast and big” (he is 1.94m tall) and says that he is “a good finisher”, but insists that he has “many things to refine”, especially in defense and in small details. His ideal player would have the wrist of Aleix Gómez and the physique of Dika (Mem) or any powerful winger. “Apart from that, I already have things that I’m happy to have and I have the head to get where I want to go,” he says.
He assures that at Barça he has grown a lot as a person. “Here I have met a lot of people who have helped me with mine, for which I am very grateful and I am going to have them close all my life. At La Masia they teach you many values, not only of the club, but of life in general I think I have been able to take advantage of them a lot and they have helped me a lot to be who I am today”, he insisted.
off the pitches
Outside the courts, Pablo Urdangarin admits that he is not very active on social networks. “I keep my privacy, within what is possible, I prefer to keep my private life for myself. I follow the people I’m interested in, my friends, my family, but I’m not one to show their private life,” he said.
In addition to his studies, outside of the handball courts, Pablo Urdagarin likes to practice other sports with his friends: “I play basketball, paddle tennis, I like to make plans with my girlfriend (Johanna Zott) and his family, a bit of everything. I have cousins in Barcelona, I do things with them, to feel more like a family”. And he confesses that it is “more about watching movies and series” than reading. “I recently saw a series on Netflix, ‘Night Agent’, and I watch a lot of movies, I’m an amateur,” he said.
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