Aitor Ariño Bengoechea (born 5 October 1992) is a Welsh-born Spanish

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

and the Spanish national team. He was part of the Spanish team that won the 2013 World Championship, as well as the

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and 2020 European Championships.

Career

Aitor Ariño started playing handball handball at 7. In 2004 he was signed to the

U14 team. He made his senior debut on February 6th, 2014 under coach Xavier Pascual Fuertes in a league match against BM Cangas. In the following season he played mostly for the B-team in the 2nd tier, where he won the league twice in 2011-12 and 2012-13. He made his international debut in the 2012-13 EHF Champions League. From 2013 onwards he was a regular part of the Barcelona first team, where he has since once both the Spanish Championship,

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

EHF Champions League The EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the men's com ...

and

Copa ASOBAL The Copa ASOBAL is an annual handball cup competition for Liga ASOBAL teams. It was first played for in 1990 and is contested by the top four teams at the end of the first half of the Liga ASOBAL Liga Asobal is the premier professional handball ...

. In December 2022 he was injured and missed the rest of the 2022-23 season. By January 2025 he has played 315 games for Barcelona, scoring 883 goals. He has agreed to join German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

team Füchse Berlin from the beginning of the 2025-26 season, on a contract until 2028.

National team

Aitor Ariño made his debut for the Spanish national team on January 6th, 2013 against Brazil. For the 2013 World Championship he was included in the Spanish team to replace the injured Cristian Ugalde. It came as a bit of a surprise that he won chosen by Valero Rivera instead of Spanish all time top scorer Juanín García and the decision was criticized at the time. Spain would go on to win the tournament. At the 2018 European Championship he won his second gold medal with the Spanish team. At the 2019 World Championship he finished 9th with the Spanish team. A year later he once again became European Champion, when Spain defended their title at the 2020 European Championship. At the 2021 World Championship he finished third with the Spanish team, and at the 2022 European Championship he reached the final, where Spain lost to Sweden. He played all nine games, scoring 3 goals.

Private life

His father, Sergi Ariño, is also a handball player, who played for

between 1986 and 1988.

Honours

Club

** ''Winner:''

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Liga ASOBAL Liga Asobal is the premier professional handball league in Spain. It was founded in 1958 with the name of División de Honor, changing its name to the current name in 1990. The Liga ASOBAL, which is played under EHF rules, currently consists of ...

: ** ''Winner:'' 13 times; 2013-2025 *

: ** ''Winner:'' 13 times; 2014-2025 *

: ** ''Winner:'' 13 times; 2014-2025 * Spanish Supercup: ** ''Winner:'' 9 times; 2013-2021 * Iberian Supercup: ** ''Winner:'': 2022, 2023, 2024 * Catalan Supercup ** ''Winner:'': 11 times: 2014-2024 *

IHF Super Globe The Men's Super Globe is a handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a bal ...

**''Winner'': 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019

National team

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

** ''Winner'':

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

** ''Silver medals'':

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arino, Aitor 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Penarth Spanish male handball players Liga ASOBAL players FC Barcelona Handbol players Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Spain Mediterranean Games medalists in handball Handball players at the 2018 Mediterranean Games 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish people of Welsh descent Spanish people of British descent