Jordi Ribera: “There are players who are going to have their first opportunity and we must give them maximum support”
BARCELONA, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national men’s handball coach, Jordi Ribera, announced this Friday the Hispanic squad list for the matches against Italy and Latvia to qualify for the 2026 European Championship, which will be played on November 6 and 10 in Sagunto and in Jelgava, respectively.
For these first two duels of the ‘Qualifiers Phase 2’ for EURO 2026, Ribera calls up 16 Hispanics with new features in the goal, defended by Rodrigo Corrales and Sergey Hernández, and new features such as that of Barça center back Petar Cikusa and his brother Djordje Cikusa (now at Montpellier), as well as that of left back Jan Gurri, from Sporting CLube.
Without a doubt, a list with several new features and that will mean the possible international debut with the Hispanics for Víctor Romero and Carlos Álvarez. The BM Granollers pivot was key with the Hispanos Junior in the victories in the 2023 U-21 World Cup in Germany and Greece and the 2024 U-20 EURO in Slovenia.
For Ademar León’s right winger, the 198 goals of the last season give him access to his first call-up with the Hispanics, not going unnoticed by Jordi Ribera. He was also the best player in the men’s Honor Division in the last 2023/2024 season.
The first duel will be at the Puerto de Sagunto Pavilion against the Italian team, on November 6 starting at 9:00 p.m., and four days later the second match against Latvia will be at the Zemgales Olimpiskais centers in the Latvian city of Jelgava, 2:10 p.m.
Ribera has summoned the Hispanics on November 3 at night directly in Sagunto, in order to have two days in which to prepare for this double meeting. The Spanish team will travel to Latvia on November 8, and is scheduled to return on Monday, November 11, one day after their match against the Latvian team.
“We are in an important period in which we have these two days for the 2026 European qualifier. We play with Italy, which has recently qualified for the World Cup after having eliminated Montenegro, and which is a team with players who have been playing together for a long time, which makes them play by heart with each other,” said the coach in statements provided by the RFEBM.
“It is a very new group, with very little training time because we have players who are going to play the Sunday before and they are going to have to join the group late. With practically a single training session on Tuesday we are going to face that first It is always preferable to have three or four days of training, especially when you have such a new team. There are players who are going to have their first opportunity and we must give them maximum support so that they can do well, because we know the responsibility that they have. has to wear the Spanish National Team shirt,” he commented on the news on the list.
The list of the 16 chosen players is as follows. In goal, Rodrigo Corrales (MKB Veszprém) and Sergey Hernández (SC Magdeburg). As centre-backs, Petar Cikusa (FC Barcelona) and Ian Tarrafeta (Pays d’aix UC HB), with Imanol Garciandía (PICK Szeged) and Djordje Cikusa (HC. Montpellier) at right back and, at left back, Agustín Casado ( MKB Veszprém), Daniel Dujshebaev (KS Vive Kielce) and Jan Gurri (Sporting Clube).
As right wingers, Kauldi Odriozola (HBC Nantes) and Carlos Álvarez (Ademar León) go and for the left winger, Ribera calls this time Miguel Sánchez-Migallón (SL Benfica Portugal) and Daniel Fernández (TVB Stuttgart HB). And Abel Serdio (Wisla Plock), Víctor Romero (BM. Granollers) and Javier Rodríguez (FC Barcelona) are called up as pivots.