Chema Rodríguez

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the Spanish soccer player, see Chema Rodríguez (soccer player) .

Chema Rodríguez

Chema Rodríguez in August 2014
Player information
Full name	José María Rodríguez Vaquero
birthday	5th January 1980
place of birth	Palencia , Spain
citizenship	Spanish
height	1.85 m
Playing position	Back center
Throwing hand	right
Clubs as active
from ... to	society
1999-2007	BM Valladolid
2007-2011	BM Ciudad Real
2011–2012	BM Atlético de Madrid
2012-2017	Telecom Veszprém
2017-2020	Saran Loiret handball
National team
	Games (goals)
Spain	127 (159)
Clubs as coaches
from ... to	society
2019–	Hungary (assistant coach)
2020–	Benfica Lisbon
As of May 21, 2020

José María " Chema " Rodríguez Vaquero (born January 5, 1980 in Palencia ) is a former Spanish handball player . He is currently working as a handball trainer.

Rodríguez, who last played for the French club Saran Loiret handball and played for the Spanish national team, was usually used as the center backcourt .

Chema Rodríguez played his first league games in the Spanish ASOBAL league in 1999 for BM Valladolid . Here he won the Copa ASOBAL in 2003 and the Copa del Rey de Balonmano in 2005 and 2006 . With Valladolid he reached the semi-finals of the EHF Champions League in 2007 , but where his team failed at SG Flensburg-Handewitt . It was precisely because of his appearances in the Champions League that Rodriguez was targeted by the top club BM Ciudad Real , which committed Rodriguez in the summer of 2007 for around € 800,000. The transfer was the most expensive in the history of professional handball to date.

At BM Ciudad Real he shared the position of playmaker with Joan Cañellas . With Ciudad Real he won the Spanish championship, the Copa del Rey de Balonmano, the Supercup, the Copa ASOBAL and the EHF Champions League in 2008. In 2009 he won the championship and the EHF Champions League with Ciudad Real. Another Spanish championship followed in 2010. From 2011 Rodríguez played for BM Atlético de Madrid , who took over the first division license from Ciudad Real. A year later he left Madrid and joined the Hungarian first division club MKB Veszprém , with whom he became champions in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and cup winners in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In summer 2017 he switched to the French club Saran Loiret Handball . Since mid-2019 he has also been working as an assistant coach for the Hungarian national team. Since the 2020/21 season he has coached the Portuguese first division club Benfica Lisbon .

Chema Rodríguez played 127 caps for the Spanish national team , scoring 159 goals. He won gold with Spain at the 2005 World Cup and silver at the 2006 European Championship . At the 2007 World Cup in Germany, he was eliminated with Spain in the quarter-finals against Germany and ended up in seventh place. In 2011 he won the bronze medal with the national team at the World Cup .

Rodríguez's nickname "Chema" originated from his quickly spoken first name ( José María ) and is also on his shirts. German newspapers also mostly use his nickname.

Web links

Commons : Chema Rodríguez  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Chema Rodríguez on the MKB Veszprém website
• Chema Rodríguez in the database of the European Handball Federation (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ rfebm.com: Estadísticas de jugadores / as de la selección , accessed on September 1, 2019
2. ↑ E. Eggers: The time of great begging is over ... In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from July 30, 2007
3. ↑ E. Eggers: Millions for the world champion. In Spiegel-Online from February 2, 2009
4. ↑ Next Spain import for Veszprem
5. ↑ handball-world.com: LNH promoted player brings playmaker from Veszprem , accessed on February 20, 2017
6. ↑ handball-world.news: Chema Rodriguez: "Do you have the impression the players are confused?" , accessed on January 21, 2020
7. ↑ handball-world.news: Benfica Lisbon with change of coach , accessed on May 21, 2020