"I really want to do something I've never done before."

The LobsterTwo young men play festive music in the street with a Casio electronic device in exchange for any donations from passersby. "When I was little, my parents already did it," explains Antonio García Robledo (Llagosta, 1984). He's 41 years old and still competing at the highest level. "Because I enjoy it so much, I couldn't wait to say it enough," he says to justify his retirement age. He'll do so when this season ends. We're in Pere Quart Square in Llagosta, in front of the apartment where he lived with his parents and where, as a child, he played soccer with friends after school at Les Planes School. A gigantic universe encompassed in just 50 meters.

He enjoys handball to the point that he doesn't care about the things in life he might have missed to pursue this passion, but he confesses that he's eager to experience a new sensation. "I really want to do something I've never done," he says. "Going on vacation for two or three weeks without thinking about the afterlife," he says with a smile during a conversation with ARA in a café overlooking the square of his life. "My vacations, despite traveling, have always coexisted with thinking that the next day I had to do strength training and go for a run. My boss also needs that pause I never get. I've been with my wife and son to beach resorts and I've gotten up at seven in the morning so he can wake me up, take off whenever I want, and eat and drink whatever I want for two weeks."

In any case, the captain of BM Granollers, a club with which he intends to remain linked in the sporting arena, is aware that these two weeks will likely be an oasis amidst the melancholy. "I'm scared because I'm sure I'll miss handball. I really enjoy every day as a player. I can't remember a day I've woken up in the morning without thinking about handball, I can't remember a time when my life wasn't designed for playing handball," says Antonio while drinking water. He's eager to let off steam even though a few hours later he'll play the last game of his career at the Palau Blaugrana, this time as an away player. "Because we won at Barça, it takes all the stars to come together. They're the opponent that has frustrated me the most on the court," he admits. Hours later, the stars aligned. BM Granollers, with seven goals from Antonio García Robledo, won 30-31 against a Barça side that had yet to drop a point in La Liga. The Vallecas team strengthened its second-place position in the standings, a position considerably more ambitious than its budget.

"I've extended my career because I love handball, and I also consider my best sporting performance to have been from the age of 30 onward, especially around 40. Since I returned to Granollers, I've found a perfect environment to perform and enjoy myself more on the court." So why are you retiring? "I realized that in high-demand matches, especially at the beginning of this season, playing in European competition every three days, I finished well but very close to the limit. I don't want the feeling I had at home after the matches to ever be felt on the court."

Happiness in Tokyo and sadness in Kolding

Antonio could write a thesis on handball, both about what happens on the courts and what's going on in the corridors. Aside from Granollers and Barça, the player has played for Ademar in León, Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in France, CSM Bucuresti in Romania, Pick Szeged in Hungary, and Kolding in Denmark. But his greatest moment of glory came with the Spanish national team and the bronze medal he won at the Tokyo Olympics. "I was 37 years old, I'd been out of the national team for five years, and, in theory, I only had to go to prepare for those Games," he explains, highlighting how complex the script can sometimes be.

By then, he'd already made it through his worst period, which coincided with his time in Denmark in the 2016-2017 season. "I got divorced and it was the first time I'd lived alone abroad. My son stayed with his mother in Granollers. Kolding had put a big bet on me, but I arrived there and everything fell apart. The club started having financial problems, the team didn't work out, and it didn't affect me athletically. In short, I was alone and far from my family. I was devastated," he recalls. "But March came and Barça called me. I went from the worst moment of my life to playing for the best club in the world and being close to my family again," he says, aware that it provides further proof of life's lack of rationality. This turnaround bore the signature of Xavi Pascual and Víctor Tomás.

Since 2019, García Robledo has also been the PSC's Sports Councilor in Llagosta. A childhood friend, Mayor Óscar Sierra, asked him, and he accepted as long as his role was purely technical and the position didn't involve him getting involved in political disputes that don't interest him. "I've lost hope that politics has the values of sport. I think that sporting values like camaraderie, empathy, and wanting to work together to grow are difficult to understand in politics. In politics, you always proceed with more caution because of what people will say. Work in the world of sports moves forward more easily."