Meet the man behind Melsungen’s comeback: Roberto Parrondo

Right in their debut international season in 2014/15, MT Melsungen made it to the quarter-finals of the EHF Cup, where they lost only on away goals against Skjern Håndbold. The German side repeated their success two years later, then were part of the group phase again in 2019/20 when the competition was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The last time Melsungen qualified for a European competition was in 2020/21, when their journey ended in the qualification round against Bjerringbro-Silkeborg.

But now, they are back with a bang in the EHF European League group matches, after beating Norwegian league runners-up Elverum Håndball twice in the qualification round. Last season, Melsungen finished fifth in the German Bundesliga and made it to the cup final, which they lost against SC Magdeburg, earning them their ticket to Europe.

Melsungen start their group matches campaign with a challenging trip to FC Porto on Tuesday (live on EHFTV at 20:45 CEST).

The man behind the comeback is a well-known face in top competitions: Spanish head coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo. The 44-year-old former left wing took over at the Melsungen bench in September 2021 as successor of Gudmundur Gudmundsson. Parrondo is among only five men, alongside Talant Dujshebaev, Filip Jicha, Carlos Ortega, and Bennet Wiegert, who have won the EHF Champions League both as player (in 2008 and 2009 with Ciudad Real) and as coach (in 2019 with HC Vardar).

“It is a privilege and honour for me to be in the same list with those big names, especially with my former coach Talant Dujshebaev, from whom I learnt so much in the six years at Ciudad Real and Atletico Madrid,” Parrondo says.

His career has been influenced by other Spanish coaches as well, including Raul Gonzalez (Ciudad Real/Madrid), Juan Carlos Pastor (national team and Pick Szeged), Valero Rivera (national team), or Manolo Cadenas (Valladolid and Leon).

Under Cadenas, Parrondo won his first international trophy — the EHF Cup Winners’ Cup in 2005, under Pastor, he won the EHF Cup in 2014 with Szeged, under Rivera he took bronze at the 2011 IHF World Championship.

“Cadenas was my teacher when I was 17 years old, under Rivera I learnt to be a respected leader of a team, but the biggest impact I had at Ciudad Real. I learnt, what you need to win every match, every trophy, to be a true professional, how to have a full focus on handball every single day. And I was taught what an absolute top team requires to be successful,” says Parrondo, who describes his own coaching philosophy as “always adapting to the next opponent and using the players always in the best possible way”.

Right after finishing his active career in Hungary, he started as a coach in North Macedonia. At Vardar, he first became part of the coaching staff of the women’s team, then also coached the men’s national team for one year before he took over Vardar’s men’s team, and finished this season on a high — winning the EHF Champions League after beating Veszprém in the final.

“This is the biggest trophy you can win, especially when nobody expects you to win this trophy. We had many new players in our squad, so I was really, really proud of my team,” Parrondo says.

The EHF Champions League final in Cologne was Parrondo’s last match as Vardar coach. He took over the Egyptian national team from his former Ciudad Real teammate David Davis – and made history with the ‘Pharaos’, leading them to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics semi-finals as the only African and second non-European team (after Korea in 1988) to achieve the feat.

The stunning run at the Olympics came just a few months after played an epic quarter-final at their home World Championship against Denmark, only losing in a penalty shootout against the eventual gold medallists.

Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, Parrondo received a call from Melsungen, which had parted ways with Gudmundur Gudmundsson and wanted to sign Parrondo as his successor.

“When I arrived at Melsungen, we were very far away from our goal to return to international competitions. When you play in the best league of the world, it is really hard to qualify for the European League or even the Champions League. It was a long way, but now we are back,” Parrondo says.

“We were definitely not lucky when Elverum were drawn as our opponents for the qualification, and we had a tough week with a Bundesliga match between both qualifiers, but after some problems in the first half of the first leg, we did our job very well.”

Despite four years away from the European stage, Melsungen do have internationally experienced players, including Latvia’s Dainis Kristopans and Brazil’s Rogerio Moraes, who both were part of the Vardar team that won the EHF Champions League in 2019.

“I knew them, they were looking for new clubs, and we managed to sign them. Both are core players of our squad,” says Parrondo, who also has the likes of Hungary’s Adrian Sipos and Portugal’s Alexandre Cavalcanti at his disposal.

In the group matches, Melsungen face former Portuguese champions FC Porto, last season’s EHF European Cup winners Valur from Iceland, and… HC Vardar 1961.

“I have had many moments as player or coach facing my former clubs, but those matches against Vardar will be the most special of my career. Me and my family lived there for many years, I have so many great memories and had so many special moments with this club,” Parrondo says.

The next goal in the EHF European League is clearly set — making it to the main round.

“Our target is always the next match, so now we talk about our opener at Porto, and then we go step by step. I am sure, my team is capable of proceeding to the next stage, but we always have to see what happens. In general, we can beat any European League opponent,” says the Melsungen coach, who singles out THW Kiel and SG Flensburg-Handewitt as the big favourites for the trophy.

Apart from their ambitions this season, one of the main targets for Parrondo is making sure Melsungen will qualify again for an EHF competition in 2025/26 – either through the Bundesliga or the German cup: “But we know how hard it is.”

photos © 2024 MT Melsungen facebook; Alibek Käsler (Melsungen); Magnus Stenseth (Elverum)