For every athlete, the time comes to think about the end of their career as a player. Some retire from playing altogether, some retire from the demands of both a national team and club career, while some retire from one format of the sport to concentrate on another – the process can be immediate or over time.

IHF.info catches up with four beach handball legends from four continents who have retired from their national teams over the past 12 months to hear about their careers, when they knew it was time to retire, overcoming adversity and a lot more. 

For the second part we speak to the USA’s Ebiye Jeremy Mabinton Udo-Udoma. Born in Los Angeles, USA, where he currently lives, the 32-year-old announced his retirement last year from the USA men’s national team, representing them for the last time at the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in China.
 
Away from handball, he continues working as a content creator.

Playing career

I remember the first time I discovered beach handball: it was back in 2014 when some of my USA men’s indoor teammates played in the American Open Beach Handball Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama, USA.
 
I wasn’t able to attend, but a couple of the players who did mentioned I had a skillset that would probably be good in the sport. The following year I played my first-ever game at the same event after being invited by Willard Johnson. We would end up being US men’s national beach teammates from 2016 right up until 2024, and then national teammates in another discipline of The World Games, beach korfball, in 2025.  
 
At my first international beach handball tournament, at the 2016 Pan-Am Championships, I won gold and during that year a number of my goals went viral on social media, those things collectively led to launching what ultimately became my @HandballNinja persona. From that gold medal experience in Venezuela I went on to play over 100 games in just under 10 years across 20 countries. 
 
Originally, I played as both a left and right wing opposite the team’s substitution sideline but I then transitioned towards being a playmaker/centre-back on offence for the US. Defensively, I had intermittent stints and by 2024 was the primary shoot-out goalkeeper for Team USA. I played wherever coach Michael Hinson asked me to play because as an ambidextrous player my skillset was versatile. I played every position on court at the highest level at least once. 
 
Since I started playing beach, the amount of defenders who leave the goalkeeping area during shoot-outs increased significantly. Shorter, mercurial defenders like Andre Luiz Oliveira of Brazil or Adria Ortola of Spain are now regulars in that role, like I was. The narrative of shoot-out defenders solely being traditional goalkeepers or a two-metre+ player has changed.
 
Another change has been most men’s teams had their centre back playing in the specialist shirt, with the All-star Team awards referring to the best centre back as the ‘Best Specialist’. Now, the base attacking formation for most teams is to play with a specialist on the wing, like Martin Vilstrup of Denmark or Filip Goricanec of Croatia.

The prevalence of non-specialist centre backs, like my club teammate Santy Rodriguez of Uruguay, is so prominent now that at The World Games 2025 the award for the best centre back was the ‘Best Playmaker’ award, which is what a non-specialist centre back is commonly called now.

Retirement

I made my decision to retire from the US men’s national beach team in November 2024. It was after I played in – what I didn’t realise at the time – my last tournament as a US national team player; the SoCal Beach Handball Championships in August 2024 where we played a friendly against Canada.
 
When 2024 started I did not think it would be my last year playing beach handball for Team USA, but sometimes life gives you an exclusion you didn’t deserve, metaphorically speaking, and you just have to walk off the court humbly and turn your attention to the next game of your life.
 
I am grateful with what I have been able to do so far since retiring, including launching a handball clinic in my parents’ native Nigeria and make a return to indoor after having not previously played that discipline since 2019. 
 
Through a series of serendipitous circumstances, I was a part of the North American and Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) continental championship-winning California Eagles side who played at the IHF Men’s World Club Championships in Egypt. It was a privilege to play in, especially against the reigning EHF Champions League champions, SC Magdeburg, against whom I scored twice.
 
I also played in the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup in Portugal and worked as a correspondent at The World Games 2025 where I covered the beach handball finals.

I am thankful for opportunities to still contribute to handball around the world via personal agency as I accrued global influence during my playing career cultivating the @HandballNinja brand, and I appreciate the peace and freedom in not having to filter my contributions through the confines of an organisational title or role.

Advice

If I could give myself some advice when I was starting out as a beach handball player, I would say:
 
You’ll become a legend as a competitor on the sand and creator off of it, but some people won’t fully understand your vision and that’s ok.
 
People will see, but not fully comprehend, someone playing with both hands, dribbling on the sand, operating an offence from the ‘quarterback’s’ pocket, playing advanced positions as a shoot-out defender and ‘in-flighting’ throw-offs, interceptions and fast-break passes.
 
People won’t understand why you have a perpetual smile on your face or why you post so much on social media while you’re actively competing, particularly those raised in a generation that grew up without it.

Be ok with not ‘receiving your flowers’ and keep your focus on ‘cultivating your garden’ – give people grace, but never stop creating!
 
And my advice for others thinking of starting the sport, or those in it? Read the ‘IHF Beach Handball Rules of the Game’ and forge constructive relationships with IHF referees – you need to be aware of directives referees are being given for the present day versus the last competition you played in

On a more philosophical note, remember: precision beats power, and timing beats speed.
 
 

Overcoming adversity

Actually, I have not had injuries and I am quite proud of my consecutive competition streak where I was the only player who played in every US men’s beach handball competition from its re-inception in 2016 through the end of 2024.
 
There is a funny story though as for the first two years of my international beach handball career I lived out of my car in southern California. Before I wised up to better options, I would leave my car near a grocery parking lot that wouldn’t ticket for the days of the week I would be gone for.
 
When we returned from Venezuela in 2016 one of our assistant coaches and our manager at the time drove me back to my car, which was brimmed with my personal belongings, and before they got too close to the car, I said I’d get out and walk the remainder.
 
The manager remarked briefly that with the size of my car I could transport the team’s training goals to and from practice and I chuckled to myself in them not knowing that was my ‘house’ and there was enough luggage in that car that being the training gear transport guy was out of the question irrespective of the size of that Volvo. 
 
The other close call was when my national teammate Bill Bigham saw me asleep in the front seat of my car in a parking structure for a gym near where we practiced and then he messaged me later saying, ‘I saw you earlier, but you looked like you were in some meditative trance so I didn’t bother you’.
 
I made that part of my story public after winning USA Team Handball Athlete of the Year in 2022 and none of the guys claimed to know beforehand that I lived out of my car as we were traveling the world winning championships together, so mission accomplished on being a ninja in that respect haha!
 
 

Personal memories and future goals

Throughout my career there have been many highlights, memories and life lessons: making three consecutive shoot-out stops in the 2024 NACHC Men’s Beach Handball Championship final to secure gold against the host country and playing in 17 countries with the US from 2016-2024.
 
But one that stands out was after winning the MVP award at the 2019 NORCA Men’s Beach Handball Championships in Trinidad and Tobago. Following the closing ceremony everyone got bussed back to our accommodation except our men’s team, which took the opportunity to celebrate inside Saith Chaguanas Park where the event was being held. I rapped a number of bars incorporating titbits from the tournament and inside jokes from the squad, much to the pleasant surprise of everyone as I never rapped in front of the guys before.
 
Shortly after I became the first North American to play and podium at an ebt Finals, Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg introduced me on NBC’s Olympic Highlights programme where they showed a number of my beach handball training clips with my SoCal based teammates.
 
My medals, awards and fan art are displayed at my mother’s home in Dallas, Texas. The 50+ jerseys I have swapped with other athletes during my career are in an assorted collection in my home in Los Angeles, California.

For the sport going forward I just want as many people globally to play and appreciate the joy of throwing a ball into a net, whether on sand, dirt, snow, in a street, in a gym, off of trampolines or in the sky.

Football is the most popular team sport in the world, and the premise of the game is to use a part of your body other than your arms to put a ball into a net.

Handball, which is utilising a part of your body other than below the knee to put a ball into a net, should be as, if not more, accessible than football. If the International Handball Federation can embrace the all-nation, all-surface inclusiveness that football has outside of its primary discipline, the sport could grow exponentially in popularity, particularly in major markets like China and my native United States, but that’s more of a global handball wish than just beach handball.

 
I still mentor some of my younger former national teammates in California and I love watching and following the sport globally. It warms my heart whenever I see younger talent innovate in the game, like earlier this year I saw my former international rival Santi Vidondo of Argentina doing spin-shots where he’ll spin counterclockwise which is customary for right handers then pump-fake with his right hand before shooting with his left hand after the spin.

It’s a joy being around the global beach handball community and still advocating for the game so it was fantastic to catch up with and interview former teammates, rivals, coaches, referees, and colleagues for The World Games in Chengdu.
 
The list of whom I’ve grateful for is quite long and consists of all family, friends, partners, coaches, teammates, sponsors and supporters, but I’ll tell anybody that the top of my gratitude list in life is two-fold;
 
1. My body for being the temple carrying me through life
2. My mother for giving me life

Beyond that, I’ll specifically shoutout my indoor national teammate turned beach national teammate Willard Johnson who initially got me into beach handball a decade ago and inspired me in numerous ways afterwards, as well as head coach Michael Hinson who called me in November 2015 to try-out for the US men’s beach national team and was the first, and one of only a few, handball coaches that never requested I choose a specific hand to play with.

Follow Ebiye via @HandballNinja on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and X.

Ebiye Jeremy Mabinton Udo-Udoma – Beach Handball career

National Team
2016-2024: USA men’s national team, 130+ appearances

Awards/titles
2015: Silver – American Open Beach Handball Championship
2016: Gold – Pan-American Beach Handball Championship
2018: Bronze – Pan-American Beach Handball Championship
2019: Gold – NORCA Beach Handball Championship
2019: MVP, All-star Team – NORCA Beach Handball Championship
2020: Athlete of the Month – International World Games Association (June)
2021: Bronze – EHF European Beach Handball Tour (ebt) Finals
2021: Silver – EHF European Beach Handball Champions Cup
2022: Gold – NACHC Men’s North America and Caribbean Handball Confederation Beach Handball Championship
2022: Men’s Beach Athlete of the Year – USA Team Handball Awards
2024: Gold – NACHC Men’s North America and Caribbean Handball Confederation Beach Handball Championship
2024: All-star Team Player – IHF Beach Handball Showcase, Paris 2024 Olympic Games