The most mature Spain aspires to everything in the European

The selection of Jordi Ribera, with the highest average age of the tournament, debuts this Thursday against Latvia (8.30 pm)

How old are they Nadal, Djokovic Y Federer? Y Lebron James?, answer back.

Ral Entrerros he invokes the best, his peers, to pretend a question that is presented to him this year, as he was presented two years ago, as he did four, as he did six. The golden generation of Spain, so often buried, so many times resurrected, this Thursday at the opening of another tournament, this time the European of Austria, Norway and Sweden. As always, there is plenty of talent to aspire to maximum, to repeat the gold of the 2018 European and get a direct ticket to the Tokyo Olympics, but again the legs limit. They come from a disappointment, the seventh place in the last World Cup, so it is surprising that there is only one change in the workforce, Jorge Maqueda by Eduardo Gurbindo.

You have to be optimistic and appreciate how good our handball is. We have titles in lower categories and the young will arrive. Sooner or later they will come out and get results. For now, we endure, says Entrerros, at 38 years old. Although players like l, Julen Aguinagalde, Dani Sarmiento, Viran Morros or Geden Guardiola Already over 35 and flirting with their withdrawals, they remain the leaders of a national team with only two under 30 in the first line: the brothers Dujshebaev. In fact, for several championships, Spain has the highest average age of all selections (30.6 years).

The youngest should wait

Although several young people, like lex Costoya, Marc Caellas, lvaro Ruiz, Pablo Paredes or Abel SerbioThey have participated in the latest friendlies, none of them have competed in major tournaments and must wait after the Tokyo Games, when they are over 25 years old, to find their chance. The fear of dissolving the most successful group in the history of Spain, world champion in 2013 or finalist in the last two Europeans, has taken the view of the horizon.

It's not quite that way. We work a lot towards the future and we give experience to players who will reach the national team, but in the tournaments we only select those who we think will give us the maximum immediate performance, the group leader defends himself, Jordi Ribera, which arrived in 2016 after the selection was left out of the Ro Games and, more than revolutionizing the squad, changed the game. With his style worked, very tactical, trying to get Spain back to knock the younger teams, like the new France of twenty-year-olds like Dika Mem or Melvyn Richardson, the Denmark that still leads Mikkel Hansen or the Norway of Sander Sagosen.

With some fortune in the previous draw – none of those three sets is in his part of the picture – Spain will debut this Thursday against Latvia (20.30, Teledeporte), then face Germany (Saturday, 18.15) and close the first phase against Holland ( Monday 13, 20.30). The duel against the German team, semifinalist in the last World Cup, is key to face a second phase in which the maximum rival is Croatia. In principle, only those two teams can snatch one of the places in the semifinals from Spain. A European is always very demanding, but we are motivated and want to do important things, Ribera concludes.