A new Gassama on the block: Goundo comes of age at China 2024

Prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, ihf.info spoke with line player Kaba Gassama about her handball journey. The Spain stalwart, hails from a sporting family, which always tried to use sports as a catalyst in their lives.

One of her brothers, Mamadou, currently playing for Portuguese champions Sporting CP, is also a handball player. Another brother, Sekou, is a football player and has played for several Spanish teams and in the past season has featured in Cyprus, for Anorthosis Famagusta.

Kaba’s younger sister, Goundo, who is still a teenager, has also followed in her footsteps and plays as a goalkeeper for Granollers’ younger age category teams, aiming to become a professional in the future.

Now, Goundo is following into Kaba’s footsteps, being an integrant part of the Spain women’s national youth team, which won three matches out of three in the preliminary round of the 2024 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship and made it into the main round with two points, with the big aim being a medal.

“Well, handball because in my household it is basically mandatory to play a sport, I come from a sporting family where my older brother plays handball, I have another brother who plays football and another sister who plays with the Guerreras, so I want to continue the saga and give my best,” said Spain’s goalkeeper.

Gassama had 22 saves and a 29.7% saving efficiency in the wins against Egypt (37:22), Romania (25:20) and Switzerland (25:21), being Spain’s main goalkeeper in those matches, as the European side delivered a huge improvement, after qualifying from the W17 EHF Championship in 2023, the competition which acts like a feeder for the W17 EHF EURO – the top level of the pyramid.

“The truth is that we are very happy with our performances, because we come from the EHF European Championship, the B division, and we are here and won three matches. We had the dream of playing at the World Championship and here we are, we came with our hearts open,” says Gassama.

In a tough group – probably the most balanced at China 2024 – Spain delivered three wins and never conceded more than 22 goals, against competitive opponents, returning to their excellent defensive-first mentality, which provided so many performances in the past at the senior level.

“Our objective is to win medals, we have always said that we are a generation that has been promising, fighting together, 90% of the team has been working together for four years and our objective is to win medals and if it can be the gold here in China, it will be even better,” added Gassama.

Surprisingly enough, she has not followed into the footsteps of her sister, Kaba, who has been an elite line player over the past years, winning her spot in the Spain national team, which finished on the last place at the Olympics in Paris 2024 just a week ago.

But Goundo was close enough to become a line player, starting handball on that position with Kaba being her position coach when she was starting, with a nine-year difference between them helping the current goalkeeper see her sister as a role model.

And then Kaba saw something in her sister.

“She was my coach, basically, teaching me all the secrets of the position. But then, she realised that I have good reflexes. She saw the potential in me. And she said, well, why don’t you try to become a goalkeeper? I tried and here I am. So I owe it to my sister, of course,” said Goundo.

One minus – if it can be called like that - for representing Spain at the 2024 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship is that Goundo could not be present at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to cheer for her sister, as she was in the training camp prior to the start of the competition.

While Spain crashed out relatively early, with five losses in five matches, Gassama was still one of the best players of the team, both in attack and in defence. And Goundo supported her from Spain.

“Well, I saw the matches on TV, I couldn't be there, my family was there, I saw them doing pretty well. For Spain, it was a bit hard not to be able to go through, but here we are, the little ones, showing our faces and showing that Spain has a good generation and we can win a medal,” concluded Gassama.