“I'm a chemical engineer,” says Marc Larumbe.
“I have worked at Fluidra for four years.
It's good for me because I feel like while I'm working I'm in the real world.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to leave the water polo bubble.
I know what I'm telling myself: I'm a water polo nut."
Sitting at a table in Barceloneta, around a casserole of seafood rice, Marc Larumbe, Edu Lorrio, Álvaro Granados and Felipe Perrone share the last meal before dispersing.
In four months the Olympic Games await them in Paris.
Behind them they leave a frenetic winter of concentrations and tournaments.
They have won gold at the European Championship in Croatia and bronze at the World Cup in Doha.
They are the team to beat.
They are happy, but they have barely touched the esqueixada and the tumaca bread resists in the dish.
They talk with more energy than they eat.
They ask about Pedro Sánchez, about Isabel Díaz Ayuso, about national politics.
They briefly talk about a book,
Crime and Punishment,
and someone connects the murderer with a certain coach.
They are intrigued by issues such as justice, pride and “agony”, the feeling of drowning, paralysis, absolute exhaustion that they perceive as a threat that they must live with in each qualifying match.
They think out loud about technicians who tested them.
They reflect on good and evil.
Do they exist in the maximum competition?
They compare utilitarian leaders with others who become emotionally involved with their swimmers without caring more about success or failure than loyalty.
Team sports stimulate debate, but this game that is played in deep water, with a ball, seven naked men against seven naked men and two goals in matches lasting one hour divided into four quarters, produces people with feelings on the surface. skin, guys who long to find a common point.
These guys sitting at the table in Barceloneta have discovered something that not every team can boast of: when they are together they are happy.
The four have shared the locker room of the Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta.
Winner of the last 18 Spanish leagues and a benchmark in the Champions League, Barceloneta is the base of the Spanish team that David Martín has built with the mortar of complicity that unites the great club teams.
Unai Aguirre, Alberto Munárriz, Bernat Sanahuja, Miguel de Toro, Martin Faměra, Roger Tahull and Alex Bustos also left the Barceloneta hotbed.
They all ended up on the Spanish team.
Since they won silver with the national team in the 2018 European Championship, their trail has not stopped growing: silver in the 2019 World Cup, silver in the 2020 European Championship, fourth place in the 2021 Games, gold in the 2022 World Cup, bronze in the 2022 European Championship, bronze in the 2023 World Cup, gold in the 2024 European Championship and bronze in the 2024 World Cup.
Álvaro Granados, with Loewe pants;
Felipe Perrone wears a Hermès sweater;
Bernat Sanahuja, from Levi's;
Marc Larumbe, from Gimaguas;
Unai Aguirre wears Tommy Hilfiger;
Sergi Cabanas, with Levi's t-shirt.Daniel Riera
Larumbe is two men in one: in the water, a savage;
out of the water, a teacher.
“There are three types of great water polo players,” says the leader of Spain's defense.
“Goal scorers, players with a very clear record who at the end of the season will give you a number of goals, and that can help you win games.
Then there are the architects, who are the ones who build teams because they have a very high notion of the game tactically and technically.
Maybe they don't contribute as much in statistics, but they make their teammates better: they multiply.
The third type is the goalscorer-architect.
They are the rarest.
They are capable of doing everything and adapt to the situation of each game to do more of one thing or another.
In recent years only two have emerged: Andrija Prlainović and Felipe Perrone.”
Perrone was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1986. He developed as a swimmer and as an underwater fisherman in Guanabara Bay, he was the terror of the octopus colony that lives under the breakers of Sugarloaf Mountain, he settled in Barceloneta in 2003, and Since then it made the Mediterranean its particular ecosystem.
Beneath the surface of his sweet, tropical voice lies the persuasion of the patriarch who knew all the ports.
“There's a point in sport where you totally expose yourself,” he observes.
“We, having been together for so many years, have exposed ourselves a lot.
In defeat, in victory, in frustration, in fear.”
“In everyday life it is very difficult to share experiences with as much intensity as in high-competition sport,” explains Perrone.
“With this group of people we experience brutal emotions and that is addictive.
That's why we love water polo: because it is a game that allows you to get to know others in an intense way.
It is opening the heart.
It is the best part of team sports and in water polo you discover the essence.
You don't strive for money here.
"Here, if there is no passion, you will fall by the wayside."
The swimsuits are from One and Another Swimwear.
At the top, Álvaro, wearing Giorgio Armani pants.
Unai wears Prada shorts;
Eduardo, top by Carlota Barrera;
Marc, Mango shirt;
Bernat, Dolce & Gabbana top, and Felipe, Levi's top.Daniel Riera
Personal harmony has consolidated friendships.
In the Spanish team, affection and loyalty are an explosive fuel.
Camaraderie is the secret competitive weapon of a team that in the last five years has subdued Hungary, Serbia, Italy and Croatia, the best teams in the world.
“It is true that empathy happens in all groups,” reflects Perrone.
“The question is, is this artificially manufactured by the coaches or does it come naturally?”
“Codes are fundamental,” he warns.
“What things you accept and what things you don't accept.
This in the end is the key because the development of the group depends on it: do you accept individualism?
Until where?
Do you accept that some do not make an effort for others?
David Martín, to increase competitiveness, created games: whoever lost had to swim.
He said: 'At the end of training, those who have lost go to swim... 400 meters at 100%.'
The first day we accepted it.
But we were so upset about having to compete against each other that we decided that it didn't matter the result, we would all swim.
We would all accept the punishment, even the winners.
'David, I'm sorry but I can't compete against him;
I know you want to do this so we can get our act together, but we as a group are not going to accept it.
If you want, do it, but we all swim together.'
David was surprised.
We all lined up and said, 'No!
"Let's all go swimming!"
“I never shared a locker room at Barceloneta,” says Sergi Cabanas, a national team player who was captain of Sabadell before emigrating to Jug in Dubrovnik.
“But their way of understanding infects me.
For them this is a family.
Many have gone to other teammates' weddings, witnessed the birth of their children, and that creates a bond beyond sports.
When Munárriz makes video calls with his family and the team is on the bus, his phone is passed from player to player and everyone greets his daughters.
This fills.
It brightens your day.
He makes you a participant in what is important to him in his personal life.
Perrone took his son Nicola and his wife to the World Cup in Doha.
You connect with them.
You bond.
I am sure that when these players finish their careers they will continue to be linked in one way or another to that family they have created among themselves.”
In the foreground, Unai Aguirre, wearing a Loewe polo shirt and Tommy Hilfiger pants.
Behind, from left to right, Eduardo Lorrio, wearing Giorgio Armani pants and a Loewe sweater at the waist;
Álvaro Granados, with a Gimaguas t-shirt, a Juan Guijarro shirt and Loewe jeans.
Marc Larumbe, with a Gimaguas top and pants and a Juan Guijarro shirt at the waist, and Sergi Cabanas, with a Levi's top and Emporio Armani pants.Daniel Riera
Felipe Perrone, surrounded by other players, wears a Hermès jersey and Levi's jeans.Daniel Riera
Álvaro Granados, with a Gimaguas t-shirt and Loewe jeans.
Marc Larumbe, with a Gimaguas top and pants and a Juan Guijarro shirt around his waist.Daniel Riera
“This is spontaneous,” says Cabanas.
“There is no coaching here.
To create these bonds you need to have suffered and cried together.
You need the blows to prove that those people have been by your side.
In the Fukuoka semifinal of the 2023 World Cup they scored on us after three seconds and there were people crying.
You approach this person, hug them, and share their sadness.
Or they hug you.
Then you go to have a beer and months can go by without seeing her and when you see her again you feel great joy.
Damn, you, how happy it has made me that we can be together now!
“There is little emphasis on the difficulty of the medium,” warns the Jug giant.
“When you jump into the water, you survive first!
Once you have managed to survive you adapt to what comes to you.
People come together more in the water.”
Thales of Miletus, back in the 7th century BC, said that all things arose from water.
The water of the nymphs, the purifying water, the water that swallows dreams, on Barcino beach, facing the sea, headquarters of the concrete mass of the Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta.
There they are, in the heat of the February sun, playing football in the sand, Sergi Cabanas, Felipe Perrone, Marc Larumbe, Álvaro Granados, Unai Aguirre, Edu Lorrio and Bernat Sanhauja.
A photographer frames them so that they can show off their fashionably dressed bodies and the situation causes them hilarity.
Water polo players, with their heads covered and their bodies sunken, do not experience exhibitionism like other athletes.
After half a life spent wearing a loincloth for all clothing, putting on pants or shirts provokes a carnival-like stupor.
They feel extravagant.
They are amazed to see themselves and amazed to attract attention.
Some passersby, residents of the neighborhood, recognize them.
The majority, tourists who come from the Old Port, observe them distractedly.
The club members challenge them with jokes.
Eduardo Lorrio (left) and Sergi Cabanas wear swimsuits from One and Another Swimwear and pants from Dior.
The first, also, a Dior t-shirt.
And the second, Hermès beach towel.Daniel Riera
Unai Aguirre and Álvaro Granados (from the back) are wearing swimsuits from One and Another Swimwear and a fanny pack and accessories from Givenchy.Daniel Riera
Julián García, the president of Atlètic-Barceloneta, has forgotten to go down to the beach to greet the players, distracted as he is by the activity of a club that provides services to 12,500 members.
Through the window he observes the Old Port dock, a former channel for transferring merchant ships, now converted into a mooring for superyachts.
“The first water polo match in Spain was played there, in 1908,” he says.
At 73 years old, he shows off all the credentials.
Almeriense established in the neighborhood since he was three years old, a member of the club since he was ten, a swimmer with good marks in the 100 meter freestyle, the son of a stevedore, a stevedore himself, president of the European association of dockworkers, and visible head of the most popular institution from the fishermen's neighborhood of Barcelona, summarizes the club's philosophy in three sentences: “This is a life project.
We do not sign athletes that people admire as much as athletes who feel integrated.
“We have 108 years of history!”
Bernat Sanahuja (in the center) wears a top by Dolce & Gabbana and a swimsuit by One and Another Swimwear.
Right behind, Marc Larumbe, with a Mango shirt. Daniel Riera
Marc Larumbe (with Mango shirt), Eduardo Lorrio, Bernat Sanahuja (with Dolce & Gabbana top), Sergi Cabanas, Álvaro Granados (with Giorgio Armani pants), Felipe Perrone (with Levi's top) and Unai Aguirre (with pants by Prada).Daniel Riera
Part of the Spanish water polo team, photographed in Barcelona.
Álvaro Granados is wearing a Gimaguas t-shirt and Loewe jeans;
Marc Larumbe, Gimaguas top, Juan Guijarro shirt at the waist and Gimaguas pants;
Bernat Sanahuja, Dolce & Gabbana polo and Levi's jeans;
Sergi Cabanas, Gimaguas t-shirt on the shoulders, Levi's top and Emporio Armani pants;
Felipe Perrone, Hermès sweater and Levi's jeans;
Eduardo Lorrio, Loewe sweater and Giorgio Armani pants, and Unai Aguirre, lifted by his teammates, Tommy Hilfiger pants. Daniel Riera
Perrone serves as host.
He is the captain.
The one who opens the locker room doors to visitors.
His first warning is accompanied by a smile and a reverential gesture towards the magnificent infrastructure, provided by the City Council and financed by members who come and go through the corridors between swimming pools and gyms: “This is public!
The monthly fee is only 51 euros!
It's a discussion I have with the kids: people complain about Spain.
And it's true.
Maybe there are two or three countries where things are better.
But there are 200 others who don't!
The captain's laugh is a catchy growl.
Perrone even laughs at his misfortunes.
He laughs at himself.
“Barceloneta is the first part of my life as an immigrant,” he says.
“When I was alone at home on Sundays, I came to the club because loneliness does not exist here.
This is the meeting point of my first years in Barcelona.
Now it is the meeting point with my family.
Now my daughter swims at the club and my son on weekends asks me to go to this space where you meet people and friends.
Here a community is created.
A community of healthy habits, a space for coexistence where relationships are established.
Despite being in a big city, despite the modernity of all the social networks, here in Barceloneta there is a real community.
The club represents it.
And when as an athlete you manage to transmit and represent these people, you feel tremendous satisfaction.”
Barceloneta will be represented in a big way in the next Olympic Games.
The distance that separates the old neighborhood from the summit of the highest podium is relative.
“The Paris Games are a dream,” says Cabanas.
“In the end, what is the greatest thing for an athlete?
A gold.
Something that the Spanish water polo team achieved in '96 and that is still talked about.
Something that will make you go down in history.
Whether you have a good classification or not, your name is in the Games.”
“People unite more in the water,” says Sergi Cabanas, player of the Spanish water polo team.Daniel Riera
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