Record number of Barça players at the European Handball Championships

The countdown to the start of the European Handball Championships in Denmark from 12th to 26th of January has already begun. It's time to take a look at Barça’s participation in the 10 editions, 11 counting Denmark, and we’ll see that this time the Club will be represented by most players in the history of the European Championships.

Record number

Five players with Spain: Viran, Tomás, Entrerríos, Sarmiento and Gurbindo. Two with France: Karabatic and Sorhaindo, Noddesbo with Denmark, Lazarov with Macedonia, Rutenka with Belarus, and the young player, Mihal Kasal, with the Czech Republic, make up the list of Barça players at the European Championships.

This number of 11 players is the biggest number of FC Barcelona Handball players in the history of the European Championships, overtaking the 10 players that played in the European Championships in Serbia in 2012.

First time selected

Eduardo Gurbindo, Nikola Karabatic, Siarhei Rutenka, Kiril Lazarov, andi Mihal Kasal will play in the European Championships for the first time whilst at FC Barcelona.

Tomás, with 3 European Championships, is, of the 11, the one who has played most times in the tournament whilst playing for FC Barcelona.

Preparation

France, with Sorhaindo in the side, and 5 goals from Nikola Karabatic, beat Norway on Tuesday 29- 28, on the last matchday of the Golden League, in Paris. In the same competition, Noddesbo’s Denmark drew with Qatar 23-23.

Meanwhile, the five Barça members playing with Spain are already in Sweden where they’ll play two friendly matches, on Wednesday and Thursday, against the Swedish National team. These are the last two preparation matches for former Barça coach Manolo Cadenas, now manager of the National team, before the European Championships.