“We’re really close, we’re great friends, but at the same time we kind of feel like a family as we all moved to London. We support each other like a family,” shares one of the key players, Tania Corti.
The Italian international moved to the capital eight years ago and from day one she plunged into finding what she was looking for.
“The first thing that I did, before I even looked for a job, was to look for a handball club. And I found London GD. I saw on YouTube one of the EHF's videos from the Champions Cup, and I said ‘yes, that’s the team I want to play for. I want to play beach handball’. The girls looked so fun, they are all super nice, and here we are.”
Alongside the jovial Italian, there are eight other nationalities represented in the squad: France, Poland, Spain, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Cyprus, Australia and New Zealand.
Despite the great energy around them, it hasn’t been an easy road to the Champions Cup. In a city where both handball and beach handball are on the fringes, it’s hard to survive without sponsorship. Yet the self-funded, cheerful team defies the odds.
“When we explain what we are doing, no one has any idea about it, and when we say that we do 360 on sand everyone is confused and shocked at the same time,” shares Corti, adding that people find it cool that there is a sand court in London.
Indeed there is. The calm, sandy training ground is located in the centre of one of Europe’s busiest cities, next to the tourist attraction of London Bridge. And when the training day comes, they are on their own, with no coach by their side.
