The Italians‘ relationship with Beach Handball dates back to the late 80’s, when Simonetta Montani created the sport, while in 1990 Luciano Bartolini published the first regulations. Italy was also the one that rightfully hosted the first EURO in 2000, in the city of Gaeta.
For many years the Italian Handball Federation had invested in women’s beach handball, showing a clear preference over indoor Handball and the results were obvious: Gold medals at the EURO and the World Games in 2009, Bronze medals at the EURO of 2011 and 2015, participation in eight world championships, with a bronze medal in 2004.
In recent years Italy has been far from the accolades with a legend of Italian handball taking on the difficult role of bringing them back to the medals. Pasquale Maione, former captain of the Italian National Team with 154 appearances and current coach of the Men’s Beach Handball National Team. is a reason of optimism and dreaming.
“It is a good event with good hotels and quality food. The level of the teams is not as high as for example in the EURO held in May, but it is normal, we are at the start of the handball season and many players are with their clubs”, noted the 41-year-old coach – who managed to make 421 appearances in Italian league and scored 1,692 goals, a truly impressive achievement considering he played as a pivot – for the 3rd Mediterranean Beach Games “Heraklion 2023”.
“Beach Handball is the future”
Maione was the first Italian handball player to play in Spanish Liga Asobal (Cuenca), and he also played in Luxembourg (Kaerjeng). “We came here without preparation, the last time we were at the EURO, in Portugal. We have 2-3 new additions. We don’t have a specific goal and we look day by day to improve”, said the coach of Lanzara, which is in the 2nd division of Italy.
“Beach handball is the future, I love it. It’s very different from being a handball coach. I want to help as many young people as possible to get involved in the sport”, pointedly underlined by Maione of 14 titles (5 championships, 7 cups, 2 Super Cups) in Italy, including the double with Conversano, having a teammate Greek goalkeeper Kostas Tsilibaris.
The viral kiss to an opponent
Maione was the star of an unprecedented scene in 2012 in the Tirol derby between Bozen and Brixen, when he kissed his rival Ivan Stauffer on the cheek. The Bressanone player wasn’t particularly happy, he got so angry that he went to the center of the pitch, lowered his shirt towards the home stand, grabbed his genitals and of course was sent off.
