For some former players, staying away from handball is impossible. While some go into management, others like to take a hands-on approach and become coaches. In this latter group, Spanish handball legend Raúl Entrerríos has decided to continue shaping the sport’s future from the bench and continued his career as a coach.

A mainstay in Spanish handball history, Entrerríos, who is now 44 years old, enjoyed an illustrious career as a player, representing Spain in three editions of the Olympic Games – Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 – winning two bronze medals on Asian soil.

With 294 matches for Spain, the former captain of the national team is the most selected player in the history of the “Los Hispanos” and the fifth best scorer of the squad, with 681 goals, with Juanin Garcia, Iker Romero, his brother, Alberto, and Juan Francisco Munoz being the only players who scored more goals than Entrerríos.

After his retirement in 2021, he quickly transitioned to coaching, beginning with FC Barcelona's U18 team, being actively involved in helping uncover new players for the Spanish powerhouse. But since last week, Entrerríos has taken another role, as the Spain men’s youth national team coach.

“Of course, it is an honour to be here and to take this position. I have always wanted to become a coach, it has been something that was on my mind since before ending my playing career, so when the opportunity came, I really wanted to take it, because it is something which makes me feel great,” says Entrerríos.

With his wealth of experience and deep handball knowledge, Entrerríos now brings his unique perspective to developing the next generation, ensuring that his connection to the sport – and to its young talents – remains as strong as ever.

Entrerríos has already helped some of the best talent Barcelona had on display transition from the younger age categories to the senior team over the last years and his mission will be to get new players ready in the pipeline for the Spain national team, one of the most successful teams in the younger age categories over the last years.

At the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, Spain were champions at Croatia 2023 and runners-up at Egypt 2025, after a dramatic final against Germany, where Spain led in overtime, only to concede a 40:41 loss in the final, on penalties.

“Spain always had a lot of talent and we had some excellent results over the past years in this age categories, therefore we want to continue to produce these good results and prepare our players for the senior career, because I think this is the most important step,” adds the new Spanish men’s youth national team coach.

When asked about what the objective is for this Spain team, Entrerríos was clear.

“The purpose is to get the players as ready as possible for the next step in their careers, which is be ready for their national careers and also play for the national team. But you cannot do this if you do not compete at the highest level, against the best teams in the world. So it is more or less winning at this level too, because this is important, but what is the most important thing is for them to have the ABCs and be ready to make the transition to the next level,” says Entrerríos.

The former centre back was part of a star-studded Spain team, which was constantly on the podium in major international competitions. Entrerríos himself won the IHF Men’s World Championship at Tunisia 2005 and finished on the podium at Sweden 2011 and Egypt 2021 with the bronze medal.

He also was part of Spain’s team which won two European titles in 2018 and 2020, while also securing two silver medals in 2006 and 2016 and a bronze in 2014. But the Spanish pipeline of talent had to dig deep after a huge generational change, which saw players like Entrerríos, Jorge Maqueda, Julen Aguinagalde, Joan Cañellas, Viran Morros or Gedeon Guardiola retire.

“With this generational change – a very big one for Spain – over the last years, we needed to see who are the players who can step up and having a good system in place really helped us and you could see that we were competitive at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where we clinched the bronze medal,” adds Entrerríos.

However, Spain recorded a dip, finishing 18th at the last IHF Men’s World Championship edition and 13th at the last EHF EURO, with a step back from the previous riches. Nevertheless, the passion and focus are still there and Entrerríos is working closely with his former coach, Jordi Ribera, who is ever-present at every major international event in the younger age categories to see the new players and find solutions for the senior squad.

“The pyramid is built in such a way in which players know already the system and what to expect when they make the next step towards the senior team. Therefore, we are working closely together to have it streamlined and we can say that the principles that are at the senior team are followed here too,” says Entrerríos.

While some coaches “burn” some steps and launch themselves directly into the senior game, Entrerríos has decided to take it slow and build his career up. It was clear that since his playing days, he has a special brain for handball, acting both as a facilitator or as a shooter when it was needed.

And now, he is going to teach the new generation of Spanish players the ABCs of handball, trying to produce new champions.

“It is an honour and it is really special to be able to do this,” concludes the 44-year-old coach.