Two years ago, at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, Spain won their maiden title in the competition, after two lost finals, at Argentina 2011 and Georgia 2017.
It was a fantastic success for Spanish handball, with a generation which proceeded to win the M20 EHF EURO 2024, and was favoured to sweep all the titles in the younger age competitions they participated in, but failed to make the cut at the 2025 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, where they finished ninth.
That generation had plenty of talent stacked, with the Cikuša brothers – Petar and Djordje – as well as left wing Ian Barrufet spearheading the team. But as Spain do not sit and wait, another talented generation came to extend their domination at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship.
They started off strong, with three wins in the preliminary round at Egypt 2025 – 49:19 against Algeria, 38:35 against Croatia and 42:24 against Serbia, with their only issues coming against Croatia, where they needed a comeback in the second half to secure the win.
That win against Serbia proved to be pivotal, because after a 37:25 win against Saudi Arabia, “Los Hispanos” conceded a 31:32 loss against Iceland in the main round, in a head scratching loss, after they were up 31:30 with 20 seconds to go.
That wake-up call served Spain well, as they proceeded with a 31:29 win against Egypt in a record-breaking setting in Cairo, in the quarter-finals, followed up by a 33:30 win against Sweden in the semi-finals, once again Spain needing to come back after being down three goals in the first half and two in the second half.
“Well, we were a bit more under pressure because the generation before us has won everything there is to win. Obviously, we would like to do just as well, even though it’s very difficult. But we want to try and until now, we managed to do pretty well,” said Spain’s centre back Quim Rocas, after the semi-final against Sweden.
The match against Sweden was a pure Spain win, which saw once again their DNA transpire. Wind back the clock to any big Spain win and you will see that it was done by a combination of grit, effort and some kind of tactical tweak, which threw the opponent off guard.
This time around, it was a defensive switch, which happened in both halves, when Spain were losing control of the match against Sweden. From a 6-0, which had the half defenders move up to control the backs, Spain shifted into a 5-1, putting more pressure on Sweden’s build up.
That proved to be the winning move and Spain intercepted some easy balls which were then converted on the fast breaks, adding more woes to Sweden’s already tired attack. The 30:33 loss was Sweden’s first in the competition at Egypt 2022 and the Scandinavian side also scored the lowest number of goals in the competition so far.
“I think it was a tough competition for us, because in the group stage we played a very difficult group with Serbia and Croatia. And then in the main round we lost to Iceland. In a very… strange way. But in the end it is a game we lost. I think it helped us a lot to learn and play better in the other games. We’re very happy that we got to the final,” adds Rocas.
“We have been working very hard for this all summer, so being here and winning these matches and qualifying for the final feels very satisfying, we have been training just for these types of moments.”
In the final, Spain will face Germany on Sunday, 17 August, at 19:30 EEST, and it is yet another match against a team which has not lost a match from the seven they played so far, winning six and drawing another one, 28:28 against the Faroe Islands.
“Now there is one last step left, which is the final. We are going to face it with the same enthusiasm we have had all these games. Let’s see if we can make a dream come true,” continued Rocas.
He knows a thing or two about finals, despite not having featured, for example, in the continental one last year, when Spain finished eighth, missing out on the semi-finals and conceding losses against Serbia and Norway in the last matches.
Rocas’ uncle, Albert, is a former Spain national team player, having donned the “Hispanos” shirt for 162 times and scoring 555 goals. A two-time world champion in 2005 and 2013, Rocas was also a silver and bronze medalist at the EHF EURO and a bronze medalist at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
“My whole family has played handball since I was very young. My father and my uncle were the ones who started training me when I was just a little boy,” says Rocas.
“I started playing with them. I think that all the effort they have made has now been reflected. I have seen my uncle play in the national team and I really hope to be there. It is a dream and a goal.”
Until then, Rocas will have to be once again decisive in the final against Germany. So far, he has scored 33 goals, being his team’s second-best scorer, after Marcos Fis Ballester. But the final can be a match where the centre back really makes his mark.
