Martin lands Romania job, Thomsen takes over the Netherlands

After one year and seven months as Romania’s national team coach, Tomas Ryde has left the helm and was replaced by Györi ETO Audi KC’s coach Ambros Martin.

The change was made public on Tuesday and a press conference was held on Wednesday in Bucharest.

It was the second change within less than a week at a team that participates at the Women’s EHF EURO 2016 in December in Sweden. On Friday last week, the Dutch federation had announced that Helle Thomsen would lead the Netherlands and replace Henk Groener, who had said would step down after the EHF EURO, with immediate effect.

It means that two successful coaches of the recent past will not be courtside in Sweden. Groener had led the Netherlands to silver at the World Championship 2015 and a fourth place at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Ryde led Romania to bronze at the World Championship in 2015, but failed to reach the knockout stages at Rio.

“Neither us nor Tomas were satisfied with what happened in Rio. We thought that Tomas was the best choice for the EHF EURO in December, but from what we gathered, he was not 100 per cent dedicated to this project. He was named CEO over a group of companies and he did not have the time to coach the Romanian team,” said Alexandru Dedu, the Romanian federation’s president.

Ryde himself said: “I decided to end my stint as the Romanian national coach for three weeks ago. Why did I stop? My workload with Serica (a consulting company for which Ryde is the CEO) and what needs to be done to rebuild the new team isn’t compatible.

“[sic] In another hand the Romania team also have a great things to do, and in my opinion with a new team in place. The team should be leaded by Cristina Neagu and Eliza Buchesci, the new generation will create a new standard. Maybe not done in EC at Sweden, but the change will start from now,” Ryde wrote in a post on his blog.

A dream came true

For the last two weeks, the Romanian Handball Federation (FRH) had been in contact with several coaches, but ultimately decided to pick Ambros Martin.

“Ambros and Györ were on the same page and it was not very difficult to put pen on paper. The Hungarian side, whom I thank, understood that it was the coach’s wish”, said Alexandru Dedu.

It is the first experience for Martin as a national team coach, after the former Portland San Antonio player had only club stints at Itxako Navarra and Györi ETO Audi KC to date. The 48-year-old Spaniard is a two-time Women’s EHF Champions League winner with Györ (2013 and 2014) and also won the Women’s EHF Cup with Itxako in 2009.

“I did have a dream in my career: it was the chance to coach a very good national team in an Olympic cycle and train them in the Olympic Games. As a club coach, I won everything possible, I really wanted to have this chance,” said Ambros Martin in a press conference on Wednesday.

With Ambros taking over immediately, he will coincidentally face Helle Thomsen’s Dutch squad at the Holland Handball Tournament from 6 to 8 October in Eindhoven. At the event the Netherlands’ first team and a B-squad face Serbia and Romania.  

On a second side note, with Romania’s men being coached by Xavi Pascual, both national teams are now coached by Spaniards.