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The Palau d’Esports de Granollers has been the chosen scenario to start the countdown of the last chapters of Antonio García as a professional handball player. At forty, the champion from La Llagosta has confirmed that this will be his last season delighting us with his talent on the 40x20 and has decided to announce it with time to spare, to savor the end of a successful career and to say goodbye to all the courts that are ASOBAL territory. The captain of Fraikin BM. Granollers could not avoid getting emotional on a very special day in which he was accompanied by his locker room colleagues, relatives and many handball friends who wanted to support him.
Antonio García puts an end to a remarkable career as an emblem of the club of his life, Fraikin BM. Granollers, and a reference that has marked an era in ASOBAL. The one from La Llagosta is located in the 31st position of the historical scorers ranking of the elite of men's handball with 1,268 goals in his personal account and with the challenge of climbing positions by surpassing, this season, the numbers of players such as Alberto Urdiales (1,276), Víctor Tomàs (1,289), Abraham Rochel (1,292), Laszlo Nagy and David de La Hoz (1,297) or Juan José Panadero (1,329).
In 16 courses and 350 matches in ASOBAL, Antonio García has established himself as a perfect representative of the values of handball, a sportsman in capital letters, admired inside and outside the court, and a mirror in which new generations look at themselves. A player who has left his mark in all the locker rooms in which he has been and who has deeply ingrained his condition as ambassador of the Orgull BMG.
Antonio García – Captain of Fraikin BM. Granollers
“On special days it is important to feel supported by your own. Today is a very special day for me. After thinking it over a lot, I have decided that this is going to be my last season as a handball player. It has been a tough and difficult decision but very well thought out. My head and my heart encouraged me to continue. I enjoy playing handball and I love doing it for this club, the club of my life, but the time has come to say goodbye. I want to do it now, competing at the highest level. Now that I feel strong enough to respond to the demands of the highest competition. If something has been clear to me throughout my career, it is that effort is non-negotiable. Our sport is the best in the world”.
“I left La Llagosta to try to conquer the world. In León or in Barcelona. Paris, Nantes, Szeged, Denmark or Romania. Thanks to all the coaches for teaching me and for everything experienced. And above all, thank you, Antonio Rama. I have left you for the end. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to return home. We have made history together for the club we love so much and that is priceless. It's been many years and many clubs, but I want to focus on Balonmano Granollers. Here I have learned everything. To feel handball, to live it in a special way. The fans are the engine of the club and the team. You have made us feel and live unique moments that I will remember forever. Thanks to my former colleagues and the current ones. One is what surrounds him and I have been very lucky and I have been very well surrounded. Thanks to them I have been able to enjoy playing handball so much”.
“Thanks to my mother, to my grandparents, to my uncles. My career has much more to do with what you have taught me than with any special gift or talent. Thank you all for leading me. To my son Lucas, the reason for everything. When you grow up I'm going to tell you that you gave me the strength to live some of the greatest moments of my career”.
“I retire fighting against my feelings. I would play until the last day of my life, but I must be honest and sensible. I will fight until the last match to reach the top. It's the only way I understand handball, sport and life. Thanks to everyone and pit and balls”.
“It has been hard for me to make this decision because I have a lot of fun playing. It is true that I want to finish like this, competing at the highest level, I don't want to be on the court and not feel good, not be at 100%. When the season ends I will be 41 years old, the day after the matches it already takes me a long time to recover. I don't want to have this feeling on the court. Being honest, it's time to do it, I've fulfilled all the goals I had set for myself. It's also a good time for the club, I have been able to experience the 80th anniversary of the club, with the team competing for everything with ambitious objectives. I am eager to focus on the end of the season”.
“The moment is now because in recent years I have convinced myself that one has to retire when the people around him tell him not to do it. I have experienced many things within handball, I still feel good physically, but my head goes faster than my body. I think it's the ideal time. I will live the rest of the season as in the last years in Granollers, enjoying the day-to-day, not only the matches but also with my teammates and the fans. That's how I play best, I wish I had understood it when I started”.
“I feel excited. The possibility that the club gives me excites me a lot, to be able to work in my sport from another point of view. I have the confidence that I can help a lot. I will continue training, I am very eager to start the new stage. I am very eager to live what I have left before retiring. Handball is my life, it literally is. It has made me understand life as I live it, always giving the best of myself to try to achieve my objectives. Handball has given me everything, my wife, my son. I have traveled because of handball”.
