Mário Santos, a former Sporting handball player, is Portugal’s guide to the World Cup
Mário Santos has joined the team since arriving in Kristianstad, where Group D took place, and was thrilled with Portugal’s passage to the “main round”, which will take place from Wednesday in Gothenburg, where it is already
Former Sporting handball player Mário Santos, who has lived in Sweden “for love” for over 30 years, is the Portuguese team’s guide during the World Cup, helping “in all practical aspects, so that nothing is missing”.
“I try to help with everything that is practical, so that the team doesn’t have problems off the pitch. Whether with game hours and meals at the hotel, or with the bus, training and all the other logistics”, he added.
Mário Santos has joined the team since arriving in Kristianstad, where Group D took place, and was thrilled with Portugal’s passage to the “main round”, which will take place from Wednesday in Gothenburg, where it is already .
“From the moment I found out that the World Cup was going to take place in Sweden and that Portugal would play the group stage here, I offered my collaboration to the Swedish handball federation, the very next day, so as not to seem too anxious”, he explained.
Mário Santos, 63 years old, arrived in Sweden over thirty years ago, “a lot for love”, because in the early eighties he fell in love with a Swedish woman in Cascais, with whom he lived in Portugal for eight years, who later wanted to return to his country.
“As she wanted to come to Sweden and as handball in Sweden was very developed, I decided to come here and stayed here”, recalled Mário Santos, adding that he often goes to Portugal to see the many good friends he left there.
Despite liking Portugal, and missing some of the unique things in the country, Mário Santos is not thinking about returning, because he has a family, he has grown up with grandchildren, a home “and all of life organized in Sweden”.
“My trips to Portugal can last longer. Instead of staying three weeks I can stay three months”, explained the former leonine player, who continued to be linked to handball in Sweden, first as a player and then as a coach.
Born in Luanda, where he was born on April 14, 1959, Mário dos Santos had basketball as his first sport, which was very popular at the time, but it was still in Angola that he took his first steps in handball, at Colégio Maristas de Silva Porto.
After the 25th of April 1974, Mário Santos moved with his family to Portugal and it was in the junior team of Liceu de São João do Estoril that in 1977 he began to practice federated handball.
Shortly afterwards, he transferred to GD Cascais, where he worked for the first time with Ângelo Pintado and at that time added his first cap for Portugal, being called up to the selection of hopes in the 1979/80 season.
The good performances at Cascais aroused the interest of several clubs in the side, mainly Belenenses and Sporting, but the transition to the “lions” only happened in the 1982/83 season.
At Sporting, Mário Santos won the Portuguese Cup title in his first season, scoring four goals in the final against Encarnação. In his seven seasons with the Lions, he won two National Championships and a Portuguese Cup.
In addition to his tall stature, Mário Santos combined an unpredictability of the shot with a strong drive to overcome the opposing defenses and alongside Carlos Franco, Manuel Silva Marques and Fernando Areia, he was an important weapon in Sporting’s front line.
After winning the national title in 1983/84, depriving with names like Carlos Silva, considered the best Portuguese goalkeeper ever, Mário Santos was considered the best player in the national championship the following season.
Mário Santos was called up for the first time to the national team by Carlos Manita, to participate in the Lisbon International Tournament, in 1985, and was also part of those selected for the 1986 World Cup.
In 1986/87 he left Sporting and went to Sweden, where he established himself professionally and professionally, maintaining his handball activity with Malmo, but he would return to Portugal to play in the finals for the “lions”, helping to reach second place no championship.
After two seasons in Sweden, he returned to Portugal to spend two more seasons with Sporting (1989/90 and 1990/91), later settling permanently in Sweden.