Carlos Ortega, the success of a legendary Barça and the self-demand from ASOBAL handball

Carlos Ortega is experiencing the final hours of the 2025/2026 season with sincere calm, from the privacy of the Ciutat Esportiva, after the frenzy of conquering the EHF Champions League and closing one of the most spectacular seasons in the history of international sport. ?My body asks for relaxation. It is as important to work hard as it is to know how to rest,? he tells ASOBAL. 

The coach is a nine-time Cup champion after finishing a practically perfect season at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, with a full set of titles and only one defeat in a legendary match count. The champion of the Liga NEXUS ENERGÍA ASOBAL debuts a new continental throne and leads the narrative of the best handball in the world. ?At the moment of winning this last Champions, the whole season came to mind, the journey, how the team has grown,? Ortega explains, analyzing the team?s year and the success built from the competitiveness of the ASOBAL circuit week by week. ?I remember that - only - defeat, which was against Magdeburg. We played a great defensive game and played without Dika (Mem). I remember there was a bit of stage fright due to his absence, because we were a team in construction with nine additions, but we had to stay calm to move upwards. The group knew how to grow a lot, trust a lot, and at times performed at a spectacular level. The atmosphere in the locker room was fantastic all season and this last weekend, like a movie,? he insists.

Ortega points to that match against the German team as the D-day and H-hour of one of Barça?s most solid performances and the foundations of their latest project, which totals 13 European Cups, leading the international record, highlighting their status as representatives of the Liga NEXUS ENERGÍA ASOBAL. ?It?s not easy to maintain this level day by day. For coaches, for the staff, we have to keep pushing constantly so we don?t relax, to keep going, to give importance to every moment. There are matches and opponents that can surprise us and we have to be there, constantly pushing. We already know that something extraordinary has to happen for us not to win the Liga NEXUS ENERGÍA ASOBAL, but it demands that we never relax, you can?t relax. I think this season we have shown an attitude and seriousness that make me very proud,? the coach comments.

Discipline, combined with talent and the ability to maintain great performance every week. All to define and maintain a plan that includes a young core, of present and future, born within the equality of ASOBAL competition. ?The young players have been key in all this. Not only for their desire to compete and win. They have brought a youthful atmosphere and a key eagerness to train in the locker room. In previous seasons we had more problems training or involving everyone in all the training sessions. This year it has been a joy to train the team. It has been an absolute marvel how people have trained, the joy with which they worked, how we prepared things and how people worked and had fun. I don?t know if we will have a season like this again,? comments the coach and former player of the Barcelona ?Dream Team?.

He focuses on the performance of players who have made their way up from the youth categories like Adrián Sola, the team?s fourth top scorer in this latest edition of the Spanish professional competition at barely 17 years old, Filip Saric, and Óscar Grau, essential in the group dynamics and the consistency of the ASOBAL brand. ?I always try to reward when possible those who make an effort and give their all. Young players, like Óscar Grau, force us to improve, performing at a very high level in every training, making us have to be better and better. People who work, who feel the team. In Grau?s case, he has improved a lot in defense during the season and next year he will have even more minutes,? Ortega highlights.

An ASOBAL legend figure

The Barça coach highlights every snapshot of the global success, placing himself intentionally in the background, without giving himself importance despite having a record within reach of only a few legends of international handball. He sees his record, with 9 European titles - 3 from the bench - as an anecdote that he only recalls at the end of each season.

?Honestly, I don?t have it in my head, I?m not aware. Now that everything has happened, that you have won the titles and everyone reminds you of the numbers and successes, well yes, I say wow, that?s amazing. But during the year I don?t think about it. I would say that if before the Final Four, being the last competition of the season, they put something out saying I?m going or that we are on the way to the ninth Champions, it bothers me a lot, I don?t like it. There will be time to review my resume, but when I?m retired,? he explains, recalling the ASOBAL Hall of Fame, which collects the great names in the history of the professional competition. ?I?m retired as a player, I could be there as a player [laughs]. It would be a great dream to be in the ASOBAL Hall of Fame, but afterwards, afterwards,? he says.

Ortega has become an emblem of ASOBAL handball by being faithful to the law of the engine room, to work and discipline to be able to fit every piece of his tactical system, always keeping in mind how difficult it is to make victory routine. ?I understand that we have to celebrate and that there is recognition for the titles we have won. But I think putting extra pressure on ourselves before competing, saying that we are going to win, is not necessary, I don?t need to feed my ego. It doesn?t affect me, what does bother me, the team, is that they take it for granted that we are going to win and don?t realize the work behind it, how difficult it is to achieve what we have achieved. That?s why this season is a dream.?

The team has closed a long and demanding season at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, with more than 60 matches, and the wear of having reached unreachable perfection. Ortega rests, first, to then prepare the assault on new challenges and the start of the Liga NEXUS ENERGÍA ASOBAL 26/27, which continues evolving and expanding its margins as a professional competition, inside and outside the court, signing its best attendance figures at arenas since 2013 this last season. ?We can be optimistic about the league, we must be, without a doubt. The arrival of Ciudad Real, the full arenas when we go to play at other courts, the rise of Sevilla, which we hope will be a good venue, Granollers always has a lot of people at important matches, etc. We have to work to have more visibility and for there to be even more interest in our handball, which is very good. That way we can have more sponsors and clubs can grow. Growth of the teams and the competition, which is what we want for the Liga NEXUS ENERGÍA ASOBAL.?