Juan de Dios Román, myth and beacon of Spanish handball dies

• Juan de Dios Román.You will remember him for his deeds, by Luis Fernando López

The

has lost a man, a myth and a lighthouse.

Juan de Dios Román died this Saturday at the age of 77 at the La Paz Hospital after suffering an irreversible stroke on Thursday.

To say handball in our country is to mention above all, first,

and, later,

.

Few sports are associated with a person like handball with Juan de Dios.

A priest, a warrior, a wise man who taught-distributed his teaching in clubs, in the

, in the

(INEF) and in the

.

Also as a commentator for Televisión Española, he gave technical and psychological lessons in a sport he was fond of.

A teacher by vocation.

A pedagogue of race.

Born on December 17,

, he was from Extremadura, from Mérida.

And, cultured, kind,

with a cause and message, entertaining, he exercised as such from the universality of who stepped on half the world and many of its best courts.

since, arrived in Madrid to study Teaching, Physical Education and Philosophy and Letters, he made his debut as a coach, in 1964, at the Jesuit College of Chamartín.

In 1971 he was already training

, the best team in Spain at a time when good teams abounded.

With Atleti he won, between 1971 and 1985,

.

In that same 1985 he was appointed

.

In Atleti and in the National Team he molded and took to their highest professional heights many of the best Spanish players ever.

With the National Team, in two stages, between 1985 and 1990, when he returned to Atleti, and from 1995 to 2000, he got two silver in the 1996 and 1998 European Championships, and a bronze in 2000. But, above all, at the highest level,

.

Two milestones.

When the nerve center of club handball moved to Ciudad Real, he took over the team to make it the ASOBAL champion and the European Cup finalist.

Someone of his vocation, wisdom and experience acceded in a logical way, but in the midst of certain electoral tension, to the

(2008-2013).

He appointed Valero Rivera coach and, amid the fierce

, worked miracles by pulling money from under the rocks, using his reputation and charisma to attract sponsors to a cause that would have been lost without him.

Countless hours of work, effort, progress and setbacks, tension, and displeasure cost him his health and almost his life.

But

In

communicated, with admirable serenity and courage, that he had suffered from lung cancer for two years.

True to his ethics, he was treated in public health.

And he continued to do so when he had the bones and had hip surgery.

Chemotherapy sessions left him battered.

But never, together with Elvira, did he lose hope of reversing the situation.

.

He never stopped being curious and interested in everything that deserved it.

Nor did he stop talking with friends and assuring that, "when this happens" the cancer, the pandemic, would meet them to eat, to drink a good wine, to chat, to ... live.

So it will be for all of them, for all of us from the eternal memory, affection and gratitude.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• handball

• sports

HandballJuan de Dios Román, in critical condition after an "irreversible stroke"

ObituaryJuan de Dios Román, in critical condition after an "irreversible stroke"

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