This is me: Rodrigo Corrales

THIS IS ME: Rodrigo Corrales

One day this will all stop, and then I will look back.

Sure, the titles, the medals and the memories of full arenas will be nice, but that’s not what I’ll remember the most. The friendships will remain. Because it all started with a friendship, and my handball history is still fuelled by human relationships that mean much more to me than just throwing the ball around. Or stopping the shot, in my case, but you get the picture.

I might have turned 33 a couple of days ago, but I remember vividly the day when my friend Pepe asked me if I wanted to try handball. I was about 13 years old, his dad was the club’s president and, being my mate, he asked me if I wanted to come along.

Of course I wanted to! Even more so because Aaron and Hugo were playing there too. These three boys might have their own life now, far away from handball, but I like to say we are like fingers for a hand. The friendships you forge during childhood are always the strongest ones, and these three have been in my life ever since.

Meeting Pepe’s dad and Oscar, my first coach, was the first turning point in my career.

My parents lived in Galicia, a region of Spain where kids, in the ‘80s, would start working early to help their parents. And that’s exactly what happened to Jose Manuel and Maria José, my dad and mum. They did not have the chance to finish school as it was important for their parents that they would work to bring some money home.

My dad became a sailor, going at sea for sometimes six months at a time. He would go fishing in Madagascar, Canada, crazy places, but would always come back with a smile on his face, happy to see his family. Maria José, my mother, was very humble, she cleaned offices for a living, she also took care of elderly people. She did not have an easy life but she was an amazing mom.

Both of them were always smiling, no matter how hard their life was. Their sense of sacrifice, yet always smiling, has been a guiding light throughout my life. But when it came to handball, things got a bit tough. However, Oscar was there for me (our former coach, the guy who cared about us and made us dream about handball), he was the coach of Cangas, where I started handball.

He would drive me home after each training session and, when it came to paying the licence, let’s whisper quietly that he did not call my parents twice to do it. Without him and his kindness, I would not be where I am now.

When I started handball, I would go and see the Cangas games every weekend. I would watch Alen Muratovic and his incredible wrist and he would put stars in my eyes.

I was a massive fan, not missing a single home game and even going on trips with my friends to away games. I remember going to Irun for the last game of the season when Cangas qualified for the EHF Cup. I remember these days very vividly. It would be all about handball, and our only dream, for Pepe, Hugo, Aaron and me, would be to play for Cangas one day.

We would collect wristbands full of sweat given away by the players, one jersey here and there, and this magic would be plenty enough for the four of us.

But all of this immaculate picture broke down to pieces, though happily, when my parents received a phone call.

I was 15, and FC Barcelona had just called. They wanted to integrate me into their handball school after seeing me at a tournament. My mum talked to me about that call, and at first, I did not understand what it was about. “Going on a trip to Barcelona? Yeah, of course!” I said, being a fan of the Barça football team

I really thought they were joking with me… But no, FC Barcelona wanted me. Not for a trip, but for handball!

I guess I did not realise that it meant leaving my family behind, but I’m sure my parents did. For them, letting me go was the opportunity for me to, maybe, have the life they had never had. So I went, not totally conscious of what was about to happen, but still very excited.

Barça, and especially Xavi Pascual, had made everything so my parents would be reassured. The school had been taken care of, the food also, and I would sleep in a three-bed dormitory every night.

That’s what matters to parents, that their child would be taken care of, and that’s exactly what Barça did. And during my time there, I met people with whom I built friendships that still last to this day.

Gonzalo, Alvaro, David, Javi, Aitor…They will always be there. Not all of them played handball in the end, but all of them remain my close friends. Naturally, everyone always talks about the Rodri-Gonzalo couple. I’m talking about Gonzalo Perez de Vargas, of course.

We both found ourselves far away from our families in Barcelona, me from Cangas and him from Toledo. And he was not just my teammate, we did everything together: sleep in the same room, have breakfast, go to school, to the movies…He was my best buddy, and he still remains to this day.

We now sometimes go on holidays together, our wives are really good friends and I’m really happy to count him as a proper friend. But what all of this little crew would do, of course, would be to go and see Barça play at the Palau Blaugrana. This is where I first saw Dejan Peric, who was one of the first people I looked up to, with Barrufet. 

Barcelona is also the place where I meant another man that would change my career forever: Manolo Cadenas. After Oscar, after Pasqui came Manolo Cadenas.

While I was only 23, he made the choice to draft me to Plock. He put his trust in me, giving me playing time in the EHF Champions League while he could have gone with a more experienced goalkeeper. But I guess he saw something in me.

Not only did Manolo put me on the handball map, so to say, but it was also thanks to him that I met Sofia, the love of my life. Sofia is Manolo’s daughter and I probably would not have met her if it was not for handball.

So double thanks, Manolo!

Sofia is my number one, the most important person in my life. Of course, she lived through a lot of handball because of her dad, but we rarely speak about it at home. And when we do, she’s very lucid, telling me if I did something good or something bad.

She has been with me almost 10 years and she is, to put it simply, the most amazing person in the world. She still surprises me 10 years down the road. It always makes me laugh to think that we could have ended as two handball journalists instead of having our unusual life.

Sofia is a journalist and she finished the course that I stopped two years before the end. If handball had not been there, I probably would have done that job. We are expecting our first daughter very soon, something that I am ready for, even though I don’t realise yet how much it is going to change my life.

With Sofia, we spoke before we moved to Plock but then she decided to follow me there.

She was there when Nikola Karabatic called me to convince me to sign for Paris Saint-Germain. I mean…Nikola f***ing Karabatic! The best player in the world called me because he knew Noka Serdarusic wanted to sign me and he wanted to convince me.

He and Thierry Omeyer were the players I would go to the Palau Blaugrana to see when they played with THW Kiel. And I ended up playing with them in Paris.

Now I am in Veszprém, with some of the best players on the planet, making a living by playing handball. Sometimes, I look back and tell myself, what a crazy life I have had.

I just wanted to play with Cangas! If the small boy that I was knew what the future would hold for him, he probably would never believe it.

Maybe his parents would not have believed it either, even though my dad is not there to see it anymore. But I’m sure that he’s proud of me where he is now. But my mother definitely is proud, and very happy of what her son has become. And not proud because she sees me on the TV, but proud because, as a parent, she succeeded at what every parent wants for their child: to have a good life.

And to me, a good life is more than just handball, it’s being surrounded by the right people.

I love the fact that my former teammates, more than my performances, will always remember me as being a good guy. A boy happy to be there and ready to form new friendships. Because that’s what it is about.

No matter how hard your life is, put a smile on your face and open your arms to people.

Rodrigo Corrales
February 2024