There is a reason Xavi Pascual can lay claim to being the Mr Super Globe.

The world club handball flagship competition was named like this between its inaugural edition in 1997 and 2024. The competition that has since evolved into the IHF Men’s Club World Championship has followed the Spanish coach through much of his career, and last Thursday in the New Administrative Capital, the relationship produced another landmark chapter.

Pascual guided Veszprém HC to a second title in the competition with a commanding 42:33 victory over FC Barcelona, taking his personal tally to seven titles. Five came during his extraordinary spell with Barcelona, while two have now arrived with Veszprém, with the first one in 2024.

There was a certain symmetry to the latest one. Pascual’s first five titles came with Barcelona, the club he coached from 2009 to 2021, and Veszprém’s first triumph under his leadership came in 2024, when the Hungarian powerhouse beat Barcelona on the road to their maiden world club title. Two years later, he stood on the opposite side again, this time with a Veszprém team that had been assembled to challenge on every front, and watched his players tear apart the reigning champions in a final that produced a record 75 goals.

 

But Pascual, who is always asking for more from his players and never looks satisfied on the bench, was reluctant to dwell on the number after the final. What mattered to him was how the performance had been produced.

“I think we played an extraordinary game against the best team in Europe and the world right now. It's to be satisfied, not for winning, but above all for the way we played. I think we were very successful in attack and defence and we played a very, very complete game,” said the legendary Spanish coach.

The numbers backed that assessment. Veszprém scored 42 goals, the highest total ever registered in an IHF Men’s Club World Championship final, while their first-half burst established the platform for a victory that Barcelona were never able to overturn. The Hungarian side opened with an 8:2 run, moved six goals clear by the interval, 22:16, and retained control through the second half. Veszprém beat record after record, setting the largest win in a final of the IHF Men's Club World Championship and scoring the largest number of goals scored by a single side in the first half of a final and in the final itself.

“The important thing was to have the game under control and I think we got it. We were very well behind at the beginning and we were allowed to run. And then in attack we found quite a few clear shooting chances. I think the team knew perfectly what they wanted to do and today we did well,” said Pascual.

That clarity has been a hallmark of Pascual’s work in Hungary since he arrived in 2024, but the team standing in front of him in Cairo was no longer the side he inherited. Over two years have passed since the project began, bringing changes to the squad, to the internal balance and to the way the team wants to play.

Pascual knows that building a contender cannot happen in one transfer window. And Veszprém constantly improved over the last years, with Pascual's aura attracting players to Veszprém like a magnet.

 

The Hungarian champions have spent heavily on quality and depth, building a roster in which the most difficult decision is often who has to wait. Ahmed Hesham, Yehia Elderaa and Ali Zein give Pascual multiple options across the left back position, while Nedim Remili, Ivan Martinović and Luka Cindrić add further experience and creativity. Lukas Jørgensen - who is still missing after a tough injury in January, will bring another dimension on the line player position, while the wings offer pace and finishing ability, as Hugo Descat and Mate Gancs-Petro were the top scorers of this edition of the competition.

The recruitment of Emil Nielsen from Barcelona added something different altogether. Nielsen was the missing piece in a team that already had considerable firepower: a goalkeeper capable of changing the emotional temperature of a match as much as its statistics. And his performance at the IHF Men's Club World Championship - where he was named the MVP - showed why the Hungarian side insisted for him to join.

"You need a period of time for people to understand what you want to do. Being able to put players that you think can play the way you want them to play is something crucial,” says Pascual.

But not everything was the way Pascual envisioned it. The patience required has been tested by the narrowest of margins. Pascual pointed to the past two seasons, when Veszprém twice fell short of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4, once after a penalty shootout against Füchse Berlin and again by a single goal in the previous season. 

Yet the final was never simply about Nielsen, and Pascual was careful to point to the collective, which really acted like a well-oiled machine.

“The team has really something going on. Last year we had problems and the team became stronger. I think we were not respected in some things. And now we are much stronger because the team trusts itself and the work,” said the Spanish coach.

 

“The goal this year is to qualify for the FINAL4,” he said. “I think we're playing very well. But we'll have to be well when it's time for the business end.”

There is a subtle confidence in that assessment. Veszprém have spent years being measured against their own expectations, particularly in Europe, but Pascual believes the internal belief has changed.

That confidence does not guarantee trophies, as Pascual knows better than most. Seven IHF Men’s Club World Championship titles have been accumulated across an exceptional coaching career, yet his answer to another title was strikingly understated.

“It turns out that the two times we have come as wild card we have won,” he said, referring to Veszprém’s victories in 2024 and 2026. “And the last time we came to defend the title we lost the final. That means that next year we will try to do our best.”

But his performances talk for themselves. The IHF Men's Club World Championship had 19 editions so far. Pascual has won seven (2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019 with FC Barcelona and 2024 and 2026 with Veszprém). That's a 38.8% winning rate. Almost one in every two editions has been won by a team with Pascual on the bench. It's an utter show of dominance by a coach who has accrued over 70 trophies in his career in Spain, Romania and Hungary.

 

And the hunger is still present for Pascual. There is already another job waiting for him beyond Veszprém.

The Spanish mastermind is also the head coach of the Egypt men’s national team, a role he began in 2025, meaning that the road from Cairo this week will eventually lead back to the same country in January, when Germany hosts the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship. Egypt qualified for the tournament after winning the 2026 CAHB African Men’s Championship, and Pascual will arrive with a generation combining established international players with men who know his methods intimately from Veszprém.

Four Egyptian internationals - Ahmed Hesham, Yehia Elderaa, Ahmed Adel and Ali Zein - are part of the Veszprém set-up, creating a link between the club side that just conquered Barcelona and the national team Pascual will lead in Germany. Other players like Yahia Omar, Ibrahim Elmasry or Mohamed Sanad just add to a fantastic mix for the African powerhouse.

Egypt made the quarter-finals of the IHF Men's World Championship in 2021, 2023 and 2025. They also secured a place in that phase of the competition at both the Tokyo 2020 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals at Tokyo. And now, with such a battle-tested and trophy-winning machine of a coach, the stakes are different, but the ambition is huge.