Giuliana Pasquali
07/23/2021 6:02 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/23/2021 6:02 AM
Luis Simonet had it clear: handball, more than a hobby,
should become his legacy
. This is how he understood it the afternoon in which he took his son
Sebastián
by the hand
and led him to Ferro, where long ago love had been born with his wife, Alicia Moldes. "I have a meeting of Life Members", was the excuse to which he hugged for the baby to accompany him. It was by chance that, minutes after arriving at the venue, they were located on the platform to watch Mini training.
It was just the beginning
.
Seba (35) was born when her mother's career was shining in Communications.
Since then, passion runs through his veins for a discipline of which he later became a figure.
He was not the only one:
at the time he was joined by his brothers, Diego (31) and Pablo (29)
, with whom he collects a few battles in the Argentine National Team.
And from tonight (at 23.00 Argentine time), they will add a new one: they will share for the first time in an Olympic Game.
Also, it will be the last for the oldest of the Simonets.
"It's going to be very crazy," they repeat in chorus.
-How did you react when you found out that Sebastián is leaving handball?
Diego
: -It seemed logical to me because he has been around for a long time, he played outside for a long time, sacrificed many things ... At his age it is normal for him to stop playing.
We banked him, but we told him to hold out until the Games ...
Pablo
: -Yes, when I found out I was a little down, because I'm used to him playing and not having it is going to be a hard, ugly blow, but it's understandable.
If there is something that makes me happy, it is that he retires being in a great state and that he does it playing at one of his highest levels.
We are going to enjoy it until the last minute.
Sebastián Simonet has been in Los Gladiadores for more than 10 years.
Photo: Emmanuel Fernández.
The center-back was the only one of the dynasty who gave the present in all the appointments since men's handball became an Olympic sport: he went to London 2012 with Diego, he was in Rio 2016 with Pablo (while Chino was recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture) and chose Japan to close its story. "My expectation is the maximum. We are in a very good condition to compete at our highest level.
Going through the group is an ambitious goal, but it is what we want,
" says the SAG Ballester player who had his time in Spain and France .
Although "the fight has not yet left" of the World Cup in Egypt, in which the Gladiators were one goal away from the quarterfinals, they
transformed that feeling into a thirst for revenge
.
They will now have the difficult task of seeking qualification against Norway, France, Germany, Brazil and Spain.
"It is the group of death. Of the two, the hardest. Be careful, it does not mean that we cannot beat them," they warn in their talk with
Clarín
.
-Do they tell you something in France, Diego?
Diego
: - They know that they cannot enter relaxed against Argentina.
We have already shown that we are at a very good level and it can happen to them as it happened to Croatia or other teams: we can beat them.
Everyone knows that we are no longer an easy team to win
and they have to be prepared to play us well.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Diego Simonet (@chinosimonet)
The Simonets live present parallels
.
Sebastián plays in the country, Diego is a figure in French Montpellier and Pablo shines in Spanish Benidorm.
But, when they meet again, they are once again those who practiced all kinds of sports in their garden: they went from a soccer dive to a volleyball and even tried to compete in high jump, all inside their Vicente López house.
"
We are like friends more than brothers
and being in a team is spectacular," says the youngest.
-Do you consider yourselves similar in the game?
Pablo
: -We are very similar and many people tell us so.
Each one has a bit of the other, because we are thinking, unbalancing ...
-And do you look at each other? Are they trying to imitate any movement?
Diego
: -When I was a boy I used to look at Seba a lot, because I wanted to be like him and I learned a lot by watching him.
Sebastián
: -Now I want to be like Diego, ha.
Diego
: -I already learned Pablo's donut ... We copied a lot, ha.
We have very similar gestures and we have learned a lot.
I think that, without realizing it, when you see the other play you copy him.
Pablo
: -I, who am the youngest, learned from both of them.
Actually, we all learned a lot.
Sebastián, Pablo and Diego Simonet, when they were young.
-They always emphasize how nice it is to play together. But are there any cons?
Sebastián
: -No, because we respect each other a lot and we are quite polite.
The few times we have had problems we have talked about it.
I can't find one against him ... Perhaps the one that I think never affected us
is that they compare us or that they want to compare us
.
We were always very mature to have that very clear in our heads.
Diego
: -Perhaps that: they think that since we are brothers we are going to be a clan or something like that, and we are the opposite: we want to be a team.
Perhaps there is this fear that they will compare us or that they think that we are going to make a separate ranch, but we
want to show another image
.
They not only played together: they also had to face each other.
They did it in 2014,
when the Montpellier del Chino sent the B to Ivry de Seba and Pablito
.
And, although their stay in the second division was short because they managed to return the following year, the anecdote was tattooed on their hearts.
There also survives the image of the epic gold in the Pan American Games in Guadalajara 2011, of which the youngest did not participate, and of the gold medal in Lima 2019 that gave them the ticket to Tokyo.
The Gladiators won the gold at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. Photo: Maxi Failla.
They don't always talk about handball.
The center of attention sometimes goes to Diego and his playful inventions, such as "el 1813", a board game he created.
Others, the River games that Pablo never misses despite the time difference.
The anecdotes of Sebastián also appear in the family work that he chose to continue to prepare for retirement.
But, in reality
, the leading role is taken by Martina, Juliana and Juanita, the daughters of the two oldest
, who are already beginning to join the sport.
The anecdotes of Papa Luis, who played for the National Team for nine years, always fly overhead;
or from mother Alicia, who also represented the country.
-What were they like at the beginning? Did they give them advice or become demanding when they saw them play?
Diego
: -They never gave us so much technical advice: they are more than anything to support and follow us everywhere.
Handball has evolved and changed a lot, and that is why they are also more on the other side.
Perhaps our old man says that he wants us to score more goals, to shoot more ...
That is the advice he always gives us, but to support ourselves we play well or badly.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Pablo Ariel Simonet (@pablitosimon)
-And you, Seba? How grateful are you for that day when your dad took you to Ferro deceived and put you to watch a handball game?
Sebastián
: -A lot, both of them.
It was my old man who took me, but they always talk and it was surely a shared decision.
Not only about handball, but about instilling sports, playing, sharing, competing ...
For us it is a philosophy of life
and now we do it with our daughters, because it is what we suck: the sport does not matter, but we want to let them play whatever and have fun.
Handball gave me 90% of my friends, I learned languages, I traveled ... I have to thank him for everything.
And my old ones more.
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The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, between heritage and the future: all competition venues
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