After a lifetime in the Sarrià Sports Union, Pau Guitart (Sarrià de Ter, December 11, 1996) decided to make the leap to the highest category of state handball. When the Fertiberia Handball Port Sagunto he opened the doors for him, he didn’t think twice and decided to embark on a new adventure, far from home, far from Sarrià. When he left in the summer, it was the first time that the Sarrian goalkeeper left his village, his parents’ home, to embark on a great adventure in the league. ASOBAL. An adventure that has started well, because “the first month I had already adapted to the new competition and it shows in the first game, that I start as a starter”. In fact, the Sarria goalkeeper has played 15 games with the shirt of the Valencian club and has stopped a total of 58 shots from rivals.
Guitart also admits that “during the first month the jump is noticeable” because “he was used to training four days a week, and here were at least two sessions each day during the preseason.” Still, “I was expecting a cold dressing room, because the players are very good and some are even international,” but he had thenice surprise of encountering a ‘family atmosphere’.
Despite this family atmosphere, Guitart also claims to have met high-quality athletes. “I don’t know how to describe the quality leap of the players »from Silver to ASOBAL because« technically and tactically the players are very good, just like you see more resources in the game or much more powerful throws ». He also explains that “in Plata you can win Barça B if you want to, and in ASOBAL you don’t want to do enough, for example, to win Bidasoa”. And it is that “there are two leagues”, where “Bidasoa de Irun, Ademar de León and Logroño have a European level and are a pass”, and the others “we play the other places with more even and very disputed matches”. “I don’t count on Barça anymore,” he said.
His current team, Port Sagunto, is currently ranked fifteenth in the ASOBAL league, with 8 points. This season the league has been expanded from 16 to 18 teams due to the pandemic, and a total of four sets are down – from the 15th to the 18th -, while the fifth in the queue makes a promotion with the third in the group of the ‘promotion of Silver Division. “The goal is permanence,” said Guitart, who now have one point – Nava is 13th with 9 points – and two games less than the rival.
But meeting much more powerful players up front has not been the only challenge for Pau Guitart. Being the first time I lived alone “I had to call my mother and my partner a few times to ask some things about life.” One of the anecdotes that the goalkeeper tells is that “I put clothes in the dryer the next day to be able to train and, when I took them off, the clothes had shrunk. I called my mom and she kind of laughed. Since then, I know that depending on the type of clothes, I can’t put them in the dryer, ”he explains.
The adaptation to the dressing room
He shares minutes under sticks with two goalkeepers who have also arrived at the Valencian club this season, the Brazilian Roney Franzini and the young Dani Martínez. In fact, Port Sagunto has many new faces and this makes it “difficult to adapt with so many new players, but we have succeeded.” Another newcomer to the team is the Argentine Lucas Aizen, with whom Guitart shares a flat and with whom they had to make two confinements due to the pandemic. The first, for positives in the staff and the second because Aizen himself arrived ill from his trip to Argentina. The Girona goalkeeper explains that “the club already gave us material at the beginning of the season in case a situation like this happened and the physical trainer sends us the work and you do what you can, even with bottles of water”. “We have a terrace and some tires,” but says “it’s not the same to train an hour and a half at home as four on the track.” “Being a goalkeeper, I may notice it less, but my teammates notice this change in the muscles.”
Although the competition has stopped for the Christmas holidays and will not resume until February 8 due to the World Cup, Guitart explains that “I haven’t had many holidays”, as despite being in Sarrià had to be smart to train and return this week with the team in top condition. He hopes for 2021 “to pass the covid”, and sportingly that the team “continues in this growing line to have a better game and win as many points as possible.” Individually, he asks “not to have any injuries because I have quality minutes and that would frustrate me.”
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