It’s not necessarily in Spain’s handball DNA to provide top goal scorers. Sure, there have been exceptions, but the Spanish idea of the sport is to create players who can fit in a system and let said system thrive on the court. The idea is that handball is a collective sport, not an individual one.

But, sometimes, a fantastic individual performance is exactly what a team needs to get a win over the line. And that was the case for Spain’s quarter-final win against Egypt, 31:29, at the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship.

When things got tough for Spain, right back Marcos Fis Ballester was there to bail the team out in attack. He had already scored eight goals in the first 50 minutes, but when Spain took over control of the match, he added five more in the last 10 minutes, to help the European side get it over the line.

“I'm very happy with the game. It was a very complicated one. It was hard from the start to the end. We had to bounce back several times. It was a very tight game, very difficult. The team worked very well, but in the end that's what victory is all about,” said Fis Ballester after the end of the match.

Backed by 22,150 fans in the Cairo Stadium – Hall 1, Egypt led for almost 45 minutes and even had a four-goal lead, 24:20, with 12 minutes left on the clock. The atmosphere was resounding, fitting even for a final at the senior IHF Men’s World Championship.

But Fis Ballester and his teammates handed it as pros and delivered a masterstroke comeback, qualifying for the semi-finals of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship for the sixth time in history and for the third time in the past four editions of the competition.

“It was crazy. I had goosebumps. I had never played in front of so many people. It was an incredible experience,” said Fis Ballester.

Indeed, for players who have not turned 20 years old, the pressure was immense, but eventually they absorbed it and used it as a motivation tool to make another step towards the world title, with only two teams in history being able to win back-to-back editions of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, Denmark and France.

Spain can now be the third one, with yet another generation which looks comfortable on both sides of the ball.

And Fis Ballester is definitely one of the leaders of this generation. The 18-year-old right back has already made his debut in the senior team in 2025, in a match against Latvia, back in May.

As per usual, the head coach of the senior team, Jordi Ribera, follows the youth and junior sides in all major international competitions, seeing first-hand how the players work and focusing on their development and the future of the senior squad, which is in the middle of a generational shift.

Fis Ballester definitely fits that bill, standing at 1,92m tall, and having a strong arm. So far, he is Spain’s top scorer, with 45 goals, being the eighth best scorer at Egypt 2025, with an average of 7.5 goals per match.

But the most impressive stat for the Spain right back is his shooting efficiency. He converted a whopping 82% of the shots he took so far, missing only 10 throughout the competition, a high-volume player who hardly misses a shot.

Against Egypt, he finished with 13 goals, or 42% of Spain’s number of goals in the 31:29 win, and assumed responsibility in a tough situation, when the reigning champions were backed into a corner, on his way to the Player of the Match award, the fourth in six matches so far at Egypt 2025.

“I'm very happy. I try to do my best in every game and help the team. The MVP is a great prize. The only thing I think about is helping the team and doing my best,” says the right back.

For Fis Ballester, the future looks bright. After he helped Ciudad Real promote to the first Spanish league in the last season, the right back moved this summer to BM Granollers, a hotbed for young talent in Spain.

The right back takes after his father, Julio Fis, himself a former handball player. Born in Cuba, Fis moved to Hungary in 1997, before coming to Spain. His CV looks impressive, with stints at powerhouses such as Bidasoa Irun, Ciudad Real, THW Kiel and then back at Ciudad Real for two seasons, between 2005 and 2007, when Marcos was born.

“For me, handball is a lot in my life. I've been playing with my father since I was a kid. It means a lot for me,” concludes Fis.