TEHRAN - Manuel Montoya Fernandez was appointed as head coach of Iran national handball team.

The 61-year-old coach has previously coached Spain, Qatar and Romania national teams.

Fernandez will lead Iran at the 2022 Asian Men's Handball Championship which will be held in Tehran from 21 January to 1 February.

Montoya Fernandez is a Ph.D. in Physical Education and Sport at the University of Barcelona, ​​and his coaching career started at BM Granollers club (1992-1997, 2002-2008), with whom he won twice the EHF Cup (1995, 1996) and the Spanish Cup (1994).

 Between 2010 and 2013, he was second coach with the Spanish national, with whom he won the bronze medal at World Championship 2011 and the gold at the World Championship 2013.

Asian Handball Championship acts as a qualification tournament for the 2023 World Men's Handball Championship, with top five teams from the championship directly qualifying for the event to be jointly hosted by Poland and Sweden.