The surprising return at the age of 51 of handball legend Rolando Uríos: "He could be the father of all"

Rolando Uríos, last week training in Ciudad Real with the Alarcos Handball Club. BM Alarcos

Rolando Uríos wanted to go unnoticed, but it has been impossible.

"I have been called from all sides, even from Argentina," the surprised Hispanic-Cuban comments with a slow, Caribbean voice.

But how could it go unnoticed that the one considered by many to be the best offensive pivot in the history of handball returns to the courts at the age of 51, 13 after his crushed knees retired him.

He did it last weekend in Ciudad Real, the place that made him a world star in the first decade of the 2000s;

Now wearing the shirt of Alarcos, the modest club that took over from the ill-fated Balonmano Ciudad Real with which it won three European Cups, and which competes in the second national division with the aim of not relegating.

"Roly, are you sure you want to come back?" asked the president a few weeks ago, Juan Pablo Marciel, who did not believe this return.

"The one who has the most to lose here is you," he warned her.

But Roly had already been convinced.

🔓 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒐!

🔙

🔥 ROLANDO URIOS IS BACK!!

And he did it with this goal!

😍 @bmalarcoscr #Handball #Hispanos pic.twitter.com/rdBXujiRhA

– RFEBalonmano (@RFEBalonmano) September 19, 2022

In a way, this history is also cyclical.

In 2001, Uríos was in Cuba, trapped in what he has described as “communist propaganda”, and from there he escaped thanks to Julio Fis, a compatriot and friend who played in the town of La Mancha.

The team then needed a pivot and recommended Rolando, who ended up leaving the country, making the authorities believe that he would return when he knew that would not happen.

And now, two decades later and again in Ciudad Real, Fis is the assistant coach of Alarcos and he also needed a pivot.

"Why don't you give us a hand?" Suggested his old friend, a "quite incisive" type, as defined by the president.

“At first, I didn't want to,” admits Roly.

“But then I decided to support the team in these first games, until they find a pivot [one was injured and another has family problems].

I don't see myself for the entire season, although I still consider the challenge of reaching 52 years of age.

I fulfill them in January ”, he points out.

In the club, delighted with the gift that has fallen for them, they have told him that what he wants, how he wants and when he wants.

"There is nothing signed, he is playing for free," says Juan Pablo Marciel, top leader and one of the founders of the entity a decade ago when Ciudad Real saw its great colossus fall and was left an orphan of handball, a victim of the real estate crisis that destroyed everything.

Two goals and visit to the physio

His unexpected return ended with a defeat in the derby (25-29 against Caserío Vigón), two goals in two shots, a forced penalty and a visit to the physio the next day.

“I suffered a contracture in the left calf during the warm-up.

It's not serious, I was able to play without problems”, he clarifies.

“It took me a bit to get into the game, but I felt good.

Sometimes a little frustrated because the boys are very young and they wanted to give it to me without preparing the pass well, and there they lost a ball”, he regrets.

Before his arrival, the average age of the squad was 20.3 and a 15-year-old youth trains with them.

“I had two when I retired,” exclaims Rolando Uríos.

“He could be the father of all.

I have a 26-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son. At least I am a little bit of motivation for the locker room, the boys are excited to share the court with me”.

Since he left at the age of 38, punished by injuries (he had surgery on his knees three times), he affirms that he has never felt the temptation to return.

“I left him and he did nothing.

I weighed 122 kilos [now it is 108].

And in recent years, in Germany, where I have trained, I put myself in a gym, did my little weights, walked a lot around Berlin, took the bicycle and had one meal a day to control my weight.

But I have not prepared to play a match”, emphasizes the Hispanic-Cuban, winner of world gold in 2005 and European silver in 2006 with the Spanish team, after his rapid nationalization (his paternal grandfather was from Valencia).

At the moment, it is only seen to dispute about 10 minutes per part and, beyond the agitation caused in Ciudad Real -the attendance at the pavilion last weekend doubled (almost 2,000 people)-, it passes through his head, above all , get a team to train in Spain.

“I don't think I'm 51, but the years don't pass for pleasure”, he ditches resignedly.

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