Joan Cañellas and the Games, an impossible and cruel story. There has been no way. About to turn 38 (he will do so in September), the Catalan player had announced his more than likely retirement from handball after the Paris event, the last attempt to settle the only outstanding score of a golden career. But this time he will not take out that dagger either, Olympic fate pursued him until the end. Just like in 2021 in Tokyo, a physical mishap in the last days of preparation will prevent him from doing so. The left back suffers from a myotendinous injury in the soleus of his right leg that will keep him out for between four and six weeks. In London 2012, he was painfully eliminated in the quarterfinals; the national team did not qualify for Rio 2016 in the bloodiest defeat of his generation; from Tokyo 2020 he fell off the list just as he was about to get on the plane; and now another misfortune.
“Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you expect, want or even deserve, after a lot of work and sacrifice. It seemed difficult to repeat that feeling, but that’s how things are. Sad to end like this,” she wrote on her social networks.
Sometimes things do not turn out as one expects, desires or even as one deserves, after much work and sacrifice.
It seemed difficult to repeat that feeling, but that’s the way things are.
Sad to end like this. pic.twitter.com/OaDbtRd5Uc— Joan Cañellas (@JoanCanellas) July 18, 2024
Given his background, Cañellas had taken extreme physical precautions in recent months so that if another accident occurred, he would not have been the cause of the accident. It was not so much anxiety for fear of missing the Games, but the fear was very present. The past accompanied him like a threatening cloud. And it happened. In the friendly last Tuesday against Norway, his body broke down. In his place, the coach, Jordi Ribera, brought back Jorge Maqueda. And this Friday, for dessert, the federation announced that another veteran, Gedeón Guardiola (39), one of the reserves, will also be out because he has not recovered from the injury. His place in the reserves will be taken by Adrià Figueras.
For Joan Cañellas, winner of nine international medals and the main protagonist of the best period of the Hispanos (570 goals in 237 matches), the Games have only produced frustrations. In London 2012, the team did everything possible to avoid France, the favourites, in the quarter-finals, but the French lost against Iceland in their group and ended up crossing paths with them. The Catalan had the last shot for Spain, which went wide by a hand’s breadth, and the French ruined the team with a goal on the buzzer from a rebound (22-23). He was 26 years old and thought that, despite the cruelty of the defeat, there would be more opportunities. But no.
Then he had to deal with the trauma of his entire generation: being left out of Rio 2016. Again, by one goal, against Sweden in the Stockholm pre-Olympic. The Hispanos needed to win by three goals, but they did it by two (25-23). Getting rid of that bitterness was the driving force that moved Raúl Entrerríos, Viran Morros, Julen Aginagalde, Gedeón Guardiola or himself. So much so that they won the European gold in 2020 and, rather than celebrating the title, what they celebrated was that they already had the ticket to Tokyo without going through another pre-Olympic. The pain of not being in Rio was so great that the pandemic delayed the retirement plans, for example, of captain Entrerríos. Cañellas, however, had another sour drink awaiting him.
The morning of the last friendly before the trip to Tokyo, Ribera told him that he was on the list and they came to give him the kit. And just that afternoon, he suffered a torn muscle. It was even worse when he found out that the injury was minor. But it didn’t matter, he was left out. Three days before the debut of the Hispanos in Japan, he published a photo and a message on his social networks in which he assured that he had completed the second training session with his new team, Kadetten Schaffhausen, from Switzerland. The gap was evident.
Three decades in the national team
The collective success, with the bronze medal that culminated the golden career of that group of players (minus Cañellas), inevitably contributed to fueling his frustration. The teammates with whom he had made the whole journey climbed onto the podium, and he was not there. That injury, however, did not keep him out of the national team despite what one might have thought at first. Cañellas has continued to be a regular in the important tournaments, ready to get rid of that great thorn. The pain lessened with time, moved also by hope and the proximity of Paris. But this time, the last one, neither.
The fall of Cañellas, plus the loss of Guardiola, introduces an element of gloom into a team that in 2024 has obtained contradictory results, far from the enormous reliability of recent times. It did not get past the group stage of the European Championship in January (13th, the worst position in a major championship since 2009), took off in a very good pre-Olympic tournament in Granollers, and had a tough time against Serbia in the qualifying round for the next World Cup. On Saturday 27th it will debut against Slovenia (9.00).
After 16 years with the Hispanos, Paris, far from being the Olympic revenge for Joan Cañellas, is the last straw. Before joining the training camp, he had been preparing the unemployment papers in Switzerland, where he has played the last three seasons. After the Games, his idea was to stay with his family for one or two more years there and look for a job in marketing before returning to Spain.
The call
Goalkeepers: Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas (Barça), Rodrigo Corrales (Veszprém).
Power stations: Álex Dujshebaev (Kielce), Ian Tarrafeta (Pays d’Aix).
Right backs: Jorge Maqueda (Nantes), Imanol Garciandía (Pick Szeged).
Left Backs: Agustín Casado (Veszprém), Dani Dujshebaev (Kielce)
Right ends: Aleix Gomez (Barça), Kauldi Odriozola (Nantes)
Left Wingers: Miguel Sánchez-Migallón (Benfica), Daniel Fernández (Stuttgart)
Pivots: Abel Serdio (Wisla Plock), Javier Rodríguez (Barça).
Bookings: Sergey Hernández (goalkeeper, Magdeburg) and Adrià Figueras (pivot, C’Chartres).
Calendar
Group stage: Slovenia (Saturday 27, 9.00), Sweden (Monday 29, 16.00), Japan (Wednesday 31, 14.00), Germany (Friday 2, 16.00) and Croatia (Sunday 4, 21.00). Four more to go.
The other group: Denmark, Norway, France, Egypt, Hungary and Argentina).
Rooms: Wednesday 7th.
Semi-finals: Friday 9th (16.30 and 21.30).
Third and fourth place and final: Sunday 11th (bronze 9.00 and gold 13.30).
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