Portland ’s New Coach: Javier Cabanas

One month after Javier Equisiain left the bench of Portland, the club has appointed his replacement, the 47 years old Javier Cabanas. He was coach of BM Altea in the last seven seasons. This decision ends a difficult month for Portland as the club was looking for the right person to take over from Equisoain. During the month, Portland made an offer for Ambros Martin, but the Spanish former player did not accept this. The local press mentioned many possible candidates, but Cabanas was confirmed as the definitive solution.

Young coach and experienced players

Javier Cabanas was a very important Spanish national player in 80’s and 90’s. He played for Tecnisan, Barcelona, Teka and won a Champions League in 1994-95 with great handballers such as Matts Olsson, Talant Djushebaev or Mihail Iakimovic. Cabanas was also the right winger of the Spanish national team. He has 228 caps and he is sixth on the top scorer list of the national team.

His first team as a coach was BM Altea and he was very successful with the team. When new Portland coach arrived in Altea, the team was a mid-table club. His good work and a strong roaster took the team to European competitions. In the 2003/04 season, they reached EHF Cup Final, but lost against THW Kiel. Danish international handballers, such as Peter Norklit, Claus Jakobsen or Lars Jorgensen (currently in Portland) were the most important players of the team. When the big clubs signed his best players, they lost their force in Spain. However, Altea was able to stay in the first division under the direction of Cabanas last year.

Leaving Altea because of problems

Altea are reported to have financial problems and they may play in the Spanish second division next year. In consequence, Cabanas was free to sing with Portland. Without doubt, Javier Canabas is facing a really ambitious project. They will play for a title after two seasons.

Javier Cabanas will join two of his ex-players from Altea, Lars Jorgensen and Rastko Nikolic.