water polo | “We are the envy of world water polo”

One more year, and there are already quite a few, Spanish water polo has won international medals and has carried the flag of the best of Spanish sport in all corners. A healthy team game, with athletes who combine their studies or work with training. A recognition in the five continents, as Pili Peña and Felipe Perrone, its captains, attest to it: “We are the envy of world water polo”.

The men’s team won gold 21 years later at the World Cup in Budapest on July 3 in a match resolved on penalties against Italy. A medal as desired as celebrated after losing the last three finals (two of them on penalties) and being left out in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics against Serbia in a last quarter of collapse. Water polo was being unfair to David Martín’s team. “Everybody was happy about our victory. The rest of the countries knew that we deserved it, that we had worked hard and that we had already been in the finals for years“, solves Perrone, one of the best players of the last two decades.

The women’s team, for its part, on the tenth anniversary of its silver medal at the London Games, made up for its elimination in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Budapest with gold in the European Championship in Split on September 9 against Greece. “We never get tired of winning, that’s our mentality. We start all the championships from scratch, we want this to last as long as possible. We are excited about all competitions“, explains Pili Peña, who was also part of the squad that, just two months later, won the first World League title in history. Spain has managed to win the World Cup, the European Championship and the World League in its latest edition. The trilogy of a saga of successes

Few players are more representative of these triumphs than Peña and Perrone, two players who have many things in common. La alcorconera was born in 1986, barely a month and a half after the Brazilian, that saw the light in Rio de Janeiro in a family that had emigrated in the middle of the 20th century from a small town in Girona (Gironella) to Brazil.

In both cases there is precocity. Perrone, at just 15 years old, already participated in the Fukuoka World Cup in 2001. Two and a half years later he emigrated to Barcelona thanks to former Cuban boya Iván Pérez and began to write his legendary history in Spanish water polo. “We have been creating a great team where each player is clear about their role and where we care more about the game than the result. We made the click at the European Championship in Barcelona, ​​in 2018, when we managed to play a final nine years later. We are a noble team that plays well and everyone now sees us as the rival to beat“, says the Spanish-Brazilian, a benchmark at Atlètic-Barceloneta and in the National Team, an idol for younger players such as Álvaro Granados or Bernat Sanahuja.

Perrone is the extension in the water of David Martín, who was his teammate at the club and in the National Team until the coach’s retirement in 2012. “I am suspicious. He was my captain and he is my friend. Now we keep the appropriate distances, but it is one of the best coaches in the world. We are a team and we are always helping each other”, says a player who can act in all positions thanks to his versatility and who has now taken to social networks: “I was always very contrary, but I think it is an opportunity and you reach a lot of people“. His successes also came: world gold, bronze in the World League and European bronze. Three medals like three suns.

While Perrone was beginning to take his first steps in Spain, Pili Peña was delving into professional water polo in Alcorcón with Miki Oca, an extraordinary player (Olympic gold medalist in Atlanta 1996) who began his stage on the bench. He was barely 18 years old when he started to go to the National Team. And there he continues 18 years and 400 meetings later. “I will continue until I physically see that I can,” warns the now CN Terrassa player. Peña is one of the most veteran internationally and accumulates the world record in water polo (nine), but between her eyebrows she continues with the same objective that one day the water warriors set out in 2012: “We have been fighting for that Olympic gold for years, which is the dream. We played two finals and lost against the United States. It has a lot of merit, but we always want more,” said the player, who now travels to the United States on December 13 with the rest of the team to play a triangle.

Apart from water polo, where both were and are benchmarks, due to their age, Peña and Perrone are already preparing for the moment when their retirement arrives. The Barceloneta player, who renewed until 2024 and who will lead Spain in the Paris Games, has studies related to sports management, while the Alcorconera studied Early Childhood Education, Psychology and even has the title of Yoga Instructor. But that will come later. Now it’s their turn to receive the AS Award and extend their successes. “Hopefully we can repeat this same photo, with gold, at the 2024 AS Awards.”