Raúl Entrerríos invokes the best, his peers, to pretend a question that is presented to him this year, as presented to him two years ago, as four years ago, as six years ago. 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 aim for highs, to repeat the gold of the 2018 European and get a direct ticket to the Tokyo Olympics, but again the legs will limit. They come from a disappointment, seventh place in the last World Cup, so it is surprising that there is only one change in the squad, Jorge Maqueda by Eduardo Gurbindo .

«You have to be optimistic and appreciate how good our handball is. We have titles in lower categories and young people will arrive. Sooner or later they will go out and get results. For the moment, we endure, ”says Entrerríos, at 38. Although players like him, Julen Aguinagalde, Dani Sarmiento, Viran Morros or Gideon Guardiola already exceed 35 and flirt with their withdrawals, they are still the leaders of a team with only two under 30 in the front line: the Dujshebaev brothers. In fact, for several championships, Spain has the highest average age of all teams (30.6 years).

The youngest should wait

Although several young people, such as Álex Costoya, Marc Cañellas, Álvaro Ruiz, Pablo Paredes or Abel Serbio , have participated in the latest friendlies, none of them have competed in major tournaments and must wait until after the Tokyo Games, when they have more 25 years, to find your 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 looked away from the horizon.

"It is not entirely true. We work a lot towards the future and give experience to players who will reach the national team, but in the tournaments we only select those who we believe will give us the maximum immediate performance ”, defends the head of the group, Jordi Ribera, who arrived in 2016 after that the selection remained outside the Rio Games and, rather than revolutionizing the squad, changed the game. With his style worked, very tactical, he will try to make Spain knock down the younger teams again, such as 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 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, will be key to face a second phase in which the maximum rival will be 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," says Ribera.

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