On the 28 th of may in Cologne will host the seventh Final4 of the EHF Champions League. Since the introduction of the new competition format the Final4 it hasn’t moved from Lanxess Arena and what hasn’t change edition after edition is Spanish players occupying one of the benches of the four best teams of the season.
In fact in 2 occasions it reached the Lanxess Arena only one Spanish coach. In other editions there has always been more than one. Without going any further in last years edition three of the four coaches abandoned in the final4 they had come from the ASOBAL League.
Counting with the Final4 in this season we can say that in Cologne we’ve had 28 participants, out of which 13 had a Spanish coach, what is a crazy well the figure is about 50%.
One of the Spanish coaches who has more times set foot in the Lanxess Arena is Pasqui, sporting technician from the FC Barcelona Lassa which has reached to the final4 in five occasions. Holding the title in two twice. The only coach that beats the Catalan mark is the Icelandic Alfreð Gíslason, in which this month of May will be in the final4 sixth occasion in seven editions, having won two titles.
The person who will be on a par in this edition like Pasqui is Talant Dujshebaev who played with the Ciudad Real in the final4, one with the Atlético de Madrid and will play a second time in Cologne being the sport technician of the KS Vive Tauron Kielce.
The other Spanish coach who knows how to run his team in the Final4 is Antonio Carlos Ortega. This coach from Malaga ran the MKB Veszprém team up to cologne in the last two EHF Champions League editions. In this occasion after being relieved from his position at the beginning of the season would be change by Xavi Sabaté. Who was second in line, He will increase the record of Spanish sport technicians in the final4.
Finally the astonishment generated by the Spanish coaches we have another fact that demonstrates six times at high level the Fnal4 played in six occasions where the sport technicians have played for the title in the finals. The only finals played with no Spanish coaches were in 2014 but these circumstances were offset a year later, when the finals were deputed by Pasqui and Antonio Carlos Ortega.
Edu Agulló | @Eduagullo
