Humans of Beach Handball: Pedro Pereira

“The DNA of our club GRD Leça is not far from all of this, adding an attitude of always wanting to be better. I am fortunate to know that my club has seven international medals, six national titles for women, five for men and seven titles at the base,” says Pereira.

But all passions have a beginning, and Pereira’s started in a team called ‘Os Gordos’.

“I had several friends of mine who already played beach handball and I was invited to join the team ‘Os Gordos’. Despite not being very good, I was part of the group. From that moment on, they realised that my strongest point was organising everything. I dedicated myself to training from an early age, at the age of 18 I already had level 3 coaching and had invested a lot of time in this aspect,” says Pereira.

However, it was at GRD Leça, just north of Porto, that Pereira's love for beach handball grew. He is currently the club president and coaches both the men's and women's teams.

“GRD Leça is the love of my life. I dedicate myself to this club every day. Anyone who thinks that beach handball is just a month, something seasonal, is wrong. We have been practising sports on the beach for 10 months,” Pereira explains.

“In order to obtain support and financial support from the parish council and the city hall, daily work is necessary. We have now held our 23rd European competition, something that comes at a very high cost. We have to do several activities, be with our sponsors, so that the project is viable throughout the year.”

And Pereira also highlights the importance of never walking alone, as he always tries to “pass the dream on to 180 people”.

“We can make kids happy, put athletes on national teams, and we want them to grow as people and athletes.”

Pereira agrees that his work has helped open the doors for other coaches to emerge in Portuguese beach handball.

“We were one of the first teams, if not the first, to consider this sport as something professional. And now in terms of training coaches, we also invest a lot in this at our club, so that they have the best tools to train,” Pereira notes.

On October 13, another big dream of Pedro Pereira came true in Porto Santo as GRD Leça – Spar won the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup 2024 by beating Rødby Beach Boys in the final in an exciting shootout, where the great protagonist was the goalkeeper Ricardo Castro.

“We had already won the Champions Cup, in 2021, with the women’s team. And we needed to win the men’s. Even though we already had some medals, we needed this title. We dreamed a lot about this and worked hard to make the dream come true.

“The adrenaline rush, the moment we realised we did it, was unbelievable. It was the culmination of the work of a lot of people. Absolutely unforgettable,” Pereira says.

Pereira has also been assistant coach of the Portuguese men's team and head coach of the women's team, and has more than 100 games for the national team.

“It was an extraordinary experience. Portugal have absolutely fantastic players and I grew a lot as a coach when facing the best teams in the world. I love being a coach and being able to coach the country where I am proud to have been born - it is the crowning achievement of a sporting career.”

Everyone in the handball world calls Pereira ‘Esquerda’, which means left. The most obvious reason for it is being left-handed, but that is not how this nickname came about. 

“I'm left-handed. But this name is due to a former football player who was Esquerdinha (a lefty), played for FC Porto and scored a great goal in 1999. At the time, at my school I scored a goal identical to that one, with my left foot. And that was when they started calling me ‘Esquerdina’, which later evolved into ‘Esquerda’,” Pereira explains.

Unequivocally, beach handball has taken a qualitative step forward, even in terms of visibility. Pereira points out several reasons for this upward curve.

“The Umag European championships (2011) and the world championships in Brazil (Recife, 2014) had a huge impact. With very large stadiums, with lots of people watching, the level of popularity of beach handball exponentially grew,” Pereira says.

“Another thing was the presence of Hans Lindberg, one of the best handball players of all time, at the Denmark world championships (2013), giving the dimension that beach handball deserved. From then on he started to be recognised in a different way,” Pereira thinks.

“In Portugal, the big click was the Men’s and Women’s 16 European Championship in Nazaré, in 2016, where the investment was very well made. We started working very early with the athletes and this gave us another preparation.

“We got second and third place in 2016, and that was a blink of an eye to what we could actually do. Then we went to the 2017 Youth World Championship, we qualified for the Youth Olympic Games. In Buenos Aires, we achieved a silver medal, where we eliminated Argentina in the semi-finals with 3,000 people in the stadium watching. In the final, the president of the International Olympic Committee was watching and considering that beach handball could actually be an Olympic sport.”

How close does Pereira think beach handball is from the Olympic Games?

“The next edition of the Olympic Games will be in Los Angeles and the United States is not a country with a handball or beach handball mentality. But afterwards, in 2032 in Australia, the vision will be different in my opinion. They have a very good sports mentality and they like sports near the beach. More handball is played in Australia than in the United States. I believe there will be a greater probability there,” Pereira says.

However, there is always room for improvement and beach handball in no exception.

“We could create conditions so that all clubs can train beach handball all year round. There is a need in Portugal to have an enclosed sand area. As a national team, we would like to be able to train in the winter. For four months in Portugal it is almost impossible to train on the beach and with these facilities we would make beach handball even more professional,” says Pereira.

“We also need greater involvement from regional associations, especially those closest to beach handball. Porto, Aveiro and Leiria. We have to compare ourselves to Spain and follow the best example, as it is the country that best works with young athletes when it comes to beach handball.”

Luckily Portugal’s young athletes have plenty of role models to follow, such as GRD Leça goalkeeper Ricardo Castro. After the club’s success at the Champions Cup, Castro was named best goalkeeper and then MVP of the season. He gave up indoor handball in 2021 to focus wholly on the beach.

“I also want to highlight the example of Ricardo Castro’s herculean work. What he works outside the game itself is brutal. He trains alone with me an hour and a half before the team arrives, with training materials he bought. He invests a lot on this sport, dedicates himself in a unique way to sand handball and deserves everything he is achieving,” highlights Pereira.

And what is the biggest dream that Pereira still has to fulfil in the world of handball?

“One day I want to stop being president of GRD Leça and just be a coach, it’s a very big goal. I also want to win more international titles with men and women and win a European title with the national team.”

There is a phrase that Pereira keeps saying during beach handball games, and it has been embraced by his club.

“Whenever there's a ball that goes out, I say ‘It's Leça, it's Leça’. And I had no idea I said it so much. And to my surprise they put that quote of mine on our club's sweatshirt for this season,” laughs Pereira.

Asked what the best advice he has ever received in his career is, Pereira picks a phrase from late Portuguese actor António Feio.

“I like to tell to my athletes ‘Just do me a favour. Be happy’, a phrase by António Feio. Something super important in moments of greatest pressure. It’s a motto that makes perfect sense,” Pereira concludes.

Photos © Uros Hocevar & Sasa Pahic Szabo/kolektiff