NTU handball President, Francisco Pereira, 20, has recently returned from Norway, where he was on loan for a month playing professional handball in the top league.
Pereira started playing handball when he was just 5 years old and has since played in over 200 official matches.
Since starting his time at NTU, Pereira has been part of handball men’s first team, and has been the president of the handball club since 2019. Francisco was re-elected as club president for this year alongside his final year studying sport and exercise science.
During his time in Norway Pereira was playing on the Viking Handball Klubb. He took part in the last three games, two of which they won, scoring five goals across those three games.
This was the first time Pereira played professionally, and the loan was his first professional contract. He found out about the opportunity after the Viking Handball Klub got in touch with his coach.
Pereira said: “It was such an amazing experience! I was training every day, sometimes twice a day with strength training in the morning and handball practice in the evening.
Training took place from Mondays to Saturdays, and then there was a match taking place on the Sundays, which had hundreds of people watching and were also televised.
He said: “The quality, the intensity and the speed of a handball game in Norway is so much higher than in the UK. I feel like with this experience I was able to improve as a handball player but also as a human.
“This was what I have always been dreaming and working for, and not forgetting that with this opportunity I played in one of the top leagues in Europe.
Now he has returned to Nottingham he is completely focused and motivated to play again for Nottingham Handball club.
Pereira added: “I can only be thankful for everything that Viking Handball did for me in these 4 weeks, I met such an amazing bunch of people within the club who helped me a lot and received me really well throughout this loan.
“I loved every single bit in this experience, including meeting new teammates and the club staff; living on my own for the first time in my life; signing my first professional contract; scoring my first professional goal; playing on TV and in front of hundreds of people; and completing one of my biggest dreams which was to play as a professional handball player.”
By Laycie Beck