On Thursday, the United States of America finished their second-ever IHF Men’s Junior World Championship after their previous appearance, also in Galicia, back in 1989.

30 years ago, the USA lost in the first round group in Orense to Romania (36:10), the former Soviet Union (39:16) and Austria (36:13), and then in their second round group in Redondela to Egypt (33:19), Algeria (35:13) and the former Czechoslovakia (51:15). The results meant they finished 16th out of 16.

Spain 2019 saw them finish 22nd out of 24 teams after defeating Australia 31:18 in the first match of the 21-24 Placement Round and then losing 23:20 to Argentina in the 21/22 Placement Match two days ago.

Goalkeepers Rene Ingram and Nicholas Robinson, along with line player Paul Skorupa headed straight to Peru for the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, while the rest of the squad and coaching staff returned to their clubs in not only the USA, but a variety of different countries including Tunisia, France, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and Sweden.

One player returning to Sweden, to his club Skuru IK Handboll, is 17-year-old right back Jonas Sven Davey Stromberg, who will be joined in the northern European country by goalkeeper Ingram after his Lima experience, having recently signed with IFK Kristianstad.

Stromberg’s father is Swedish, and his mother is from Wisconsin in the United States, but it was a famous, extended family member who inspired the young Stromberg to get into the sport.

His cousin is none other than Viborg HK and Swedish women’s national team player Carin Stromberg. A former Skuru IK player herself, Carin recently scored nine times to help Sweden qualify for the 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship in Japan with a two-legged victory over Slovakia in June.

“It is how I got into handball,” said Jonas Stromberg to IHF.info in Spain about the inspiration of his older cousins. “It was in Nacka, in Stockholm and that’s how it all started; Carin and her two brothers play handball so when I was 10,11 years old I started playing because of them.

“I am definitely proud of her,” he continued. “I’ve been down to Denmark to watch her play in Viborg and seen every one of her national team games, so I get to see her play a lot, she is always helping, and I know in the future she will help me more if I want to.”

The USA started out against the hosts Spain in their opening game before facing Serbia, European champions Slovenia, Tunisia and Japan, losing them all, but leading the Asian side 11:5 at the break.

Stromberg scored on his world championship debut against Spain and went on to score further goals throughout the competition where experience was the key motivation for the inexperienced side who were buoyed on by support inside the arenas and from USA handball fans around the world.

“It was really fun to be out there with so many people watching and online,” he said. “To hear our fans, and see our families watching, it’s great and it’s really nice to represent the United States.

“For any game we always think of it firstly in the short term; we want to do our absolute best. Winning might not always be the number one priority but, of course, that’s what we want in the end and what we are all working towards which is getting better as a team and personally to get better in the long room.”

Both goalkeepers may now be in Peru, but for Stromberg, he has been happy to know he has a strong defensive last resort behind him at all times.

“It’s amazing to play with them,” he said about the USA goalkeepers Nicholas Robinson and Rene Ingram. “Whenever we messed up in defence they’ve got our back. It feels great (to have two) because if one can’t do the job then we have another one ready, they’ve always got our backs.”

Towards the end of the competition USA coach Julio Sainz brought in another Sweden-based player in Logan Per Eriksson, who plays his club handball for Eskilstuna Guif, and Stromberg was happy with the progress the squad made as a whole in Vigo and Pontevedra and was quick to point out the common goals of the team – and language.

“There are few of us who speak Swedish,” he said. “But we keep it to English when we’re with the team so everyone knows what we’re talking about and so we all know the game plan.

“Every game for us has been better and better by far and we’re seeing improvements - that’s the most important part of our experience in Spain.”