O’Callaghan: “The entire Champions League has improved”

He only played for FC Barcelona, and when he retired from life as a handball player after 19 years on court, Xavier O’Callaghan had won tremendous 58 titles, including five EHF Champions League trophies and two Champions Cups, the competition which preceded the EHF Champions League.

After he had played his last match, he took a role within the FC Barcelona management together with his teammate Enric Masip.

And like they did as players, they set the bar high: After having lost the 2013 final of the VELUX EHF Champions League against HSV Hamburg, FC Barcelona are now determined to make the 2013/14 season their season, as O’Callaghan tells ehfcl.com.

ehfCL.com: Have you already recovered from the dramatic defeat in the VELUX EHF Champions League Final some weeks ago in Cologne?
Xavier O’Callaghan: Yes, of course. We played a brilliant season until the very end, we were in the final of the most important competition – and we really did our best. In the end, little things decided, but this is sport.

ehfCL.com: Does losing the final even give you more motivation for the upcoming season?
Xavier O’Callaghan: We always reach out for titles, this is the credo of our club. So we will again try hard and train hard to win the Champions League next season, but there are several teams that have the same objective.

ehfCL.com: One of those team might be debutant PSG Handball – one of your opponents in the group phase. Do you agree that they can make it all the way to Cologne?
Xavier O’Callaghan: Indeed, they belong to the teams which are among my personal favourites for reaching the VELUX EHF FINAL4 and even for winning the title.

ehfCL.com: Are you afraid of those big guns right in the first stage?
Xavier O’Callaghan: Quite to the contrary. Even though teams like Paris, Vardar Skopje, who are strong newcomers as well, maybe Minsk and definitely the winner of the Wild Card Tournament are hard to beat, we are not afraid. We like to face those top teams.

The entire Champions League has improved. The groups are completely equal this season, which is good for the fans and good for the brand VELUX EHF Champions League. This season will be really interesting.

Look at Paris St. Germain, they are global brand already. We need more of those global brands in handball, connected to big football clubs. It would be great for handball, if for example Bayern Munich would start a handball team. This would definitely raise the interest.

ehfCL.com: Back to your team. Barcelona signed Nikola Karabatic and Kiril Lazarov. Isn’t it hard for the coach, when you have so many leaders in your team?
Xavier O’Callaghan: At FC Barcelona we do not look on the big names or whatever else, we only care about the team, the team’s improvement and its strength. The number of leaders really does not matter, they need to function together, they need to cooperate to have success.

This is the most important fact at Barcelona, and this made us as strong as we are today.