“This trophy means a lot for me. Of course, I would not score without the help from my teammates — and they really helped me a lot in the whole season.”
Six days after his 21st birthday, Barrufet netted twice in the placement match after two goals in the semi-final against SG Flensburg-Handewitt the day before, bringing his total tally to 81 goals since the start of the group matches. In the end, he was two strikes ahead of Norwegian Tobias Grøndahl (GOG) and Ukrainian Ihor Turchenko (Limoges), both on 79 goals across the season.
Unfortunately for Barrufet, he was injured right before the Maschinensucher EHF Finals 2025 and could play much less than all at Melsungen had hoped for.
The son of six-time EHF Champions League winner and goalkeeper legend David Barrufet played this 2024/25 season at MT Melsungen on loan from Barça, and will return to Barcelona this summer. David Barrufet was in the Barclays arena this weekend, and was an extremely proud father.
“When the son is happy, the father is happy. Ian really made a great step forward in his development. We could not expect that he makes such a huge jump ahead, it is brilliant.
“He loves handball, and he found a second family in Melsungen, where he played a lot. Now the next step is Barcelona, and I am sure he will improve there. But this one year at Melsungen was really great for him,” said David Barrufet, who played all his life for Barça.