CBF Málaga Costa del Sol
CBF Málaga Costa del Sol (Club Balonmano Femenino Málaga Costa del Sol) is a women’s handball club from Málaga, Spain. They play in the División de Honor, the top league in Spanish women’s handball.
The club was founded in 1994 after the merger of two local teams, Insana and Clubai. Home games are held at the Pabellón José Luís Pérez Canca in Málaga, which has a capacity of 1,788. The president is María José Moreno Triviño and the head coach is Suso Gallardo.
Known as Costa del Sol Málaga for sponsorship reasons (and sometimes as Rincón Fertilidad Málaga in the past), the team is nicknamed the Panthers because of their black jerseys. Since 2014 the club has been financially supported by Clínicas Rincón, owned by Manolo Rincon, which helped it reach the top division and compete in Europe.
The club has moved between divisions a few times, with promotions in 1995, 1999 and 2014 (the 2014 promotion to the División de Honor came under coach Diego Carrasco). Carrasco’s era was followed by his death in 2019, after which Suso Gallardo became coach. Under Gallardo the team built a strong core of players, including Sole López, Esperanza López, Estela Doiro, Isabelle dos Santos, Merche Castellanos and Silvia Arderius, along with other locally produced talent.
From 2019 to 2023 the club enjoyed its most successful period, winning the Liga Guerreras Iberdrola (the Spanish league), two Copas de la Reina (Queen’s Cups), one EHF European Cup and one Spanish Super Cup, while finishing as runners-up in the league, the EHF European Cup and the Super Cup in other seasons. In 2021 they became European champions by winning the EHF European Cup, and in 2022–23 they reached the final again, finishing as runners-up. The second leg of the EHF European Cup final, held in Málaga at the Palacio de los Deportes José María Martín Carpena, drew 7,183 spectators—the largest crowd in the history of women’s handball in Spain.
As of the 2023–24 season, CBF Málaga Costa del Sol continues to compete in the División de Honor.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:41 (CET).