Rubén Garabaya (born 15 September 1978) is a Spanish former

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 and current handball coach. He was on the Spanish team that won the 2005 World Men's Handball Championship in Tunisia.

Career

Garabaya started playing handball at BM Corvera, before joining Liga ASOBAL side Ademar León in 1997. Here he won the 1999 Copa ASOBAL and EHF Cup Winners' Cup. He then joined Frigoríficos del Morrazo for two years from 1999 to 2001, before joining BM Valladolid, the local rival of his former club Ademar León. Here he won the 2003 Copa ASOBAL and the 2005 and 2006 Copa del Rey de Balonmano. Ruben Garabaya 02

In 2007 he joined

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 ...

, where he won the 2009 and 2010 Copa del Rey. He also reached the final of the 2010

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 ...

, where they lost to German side THW Kiel. In 2010 he joined Naturhouse La Rioja. He retired after the 2017-18 season.

National team

With the national team he played 168 matches. He won the 2005 World Men's Handball Championship in Tunisia with the Spanish team. He participated at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in Beijing as a member of the Spain men's national handball team. The team won a bronze medal, defeating

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in the third place playoff. At the 2006 European Championship he won silver medals.

Coaching career

When he retired he took over as the assistant coach at his former club, Naturhouse La Rioja. In June 2021 he became the head coach of the Chinese women's team. He did however not last long and by October 2021 he instead became the assistant coach on the Egyptian men's national team, under Roberto García Parrondo. Here he won Silver medals at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and gold medals at the 2022 African Championship. In 2022 he became the head coach of the Spanish Liga ASOBAL team Unicaja Banco Sinfín.

References

The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garabaya, Ruben 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Avilés Spanish male handball players Liga ASOBAL players FC Barcelona Handbol players CB Ademar León players BM Valladolid players Handball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Spain Olympic bronze medalists for Spain Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Spain Handball players at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in handball Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games Spanish handball coaches Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Expatriate handball coaches