ax puente genil · History

Puente Genil, a town in the southern farmland of the province of Córdoba, has had a team in Liga ASOBAL, the top tier of Spanish handball, since 2013. The club is Club Balonmano Puente Genil, founded in 1984 and known by its sponsor's name as Ángel Ximénez Puente Genil, or simply “AX” and “Ximénez”. Since 2025 it has played as Cajasol Ángel Ximénez Puente Genil. Its home games are at the Pabellón Municipal Alcalde Miguel Salas.

Origins and early seasons

The club was formed in 1984 from the handball team of the Puente Genil OJE youth organisation. Its first season, 1984-85, was in Primera División. The team finished ninth and went down. After two years in Segunda División, it played in Primera División B from 1987 to 1990, finishing third in 1987-88. A long spell in Segunda División followed, lasting until the mid-2000s.

From Primera Estatal to División de Plata

The rise began in Primera Estatal. Puente Genil were fourth in 2007-08 and second in 2008-09, which earned promotion to the División de Plata, the Spanish second tier. That first spell lasted a single season: a fifteenth-place finish in 2009-10 meant relegation. The team bounced back straight away. It won its Primera Estatal group in 2010-11 and returned to Plata, where it finished seventh in 2011-12. In 2012-13 it came fourth and won promotion to Liga ASOBAL, the first in club history.

Settling in Liga ASOBAL

The first top-flight campaign, 2013-14, ended in eleventh place. Slovak player Stanislav Demovič was among the signings for that debut season. The next seasons were tight battles to stay up: twelfth in 2014-15 and fourteenth in 2015-16. In 2016-17 the team finished ninth, its best placing to that point. Players who wore the shirt in those years included Spain's Rafael Baena (2014-15), Cape Verde's Flávio Fortes (2015-16), Japan's Atsushi Mekaru (2016-17), Russia's Mikhail Revin (2016-2018) and Brazil's Leonardo Domenech de Almeida (2016-2019).

Changes on the bench

Julián Ruiz took charge in 2018. The team finished twelfth in 2017-18 and thirteenth the following season. In 2019 Francisco “Paco” Bustos was appointed and stayed for several seasons. Under him Ximénez posted the best finishes in club history: eighth in 2019-20, eighth in 2020-21 and eighth again in 2022-23, with tenth place in 2021-22 in between. Brazilian internationals Felipe Borges (2021-22), Anderson Mollino (2020-21) and João Pedro Silva (2020-2022) played in Puente Genil during that period, as did Portugal's Gonçalo Ribeiro and Sweden's Henrik Nordlander, who both arrived in 2022.

Pabellón Alcalde Miguel Salas

The team plays at the Pabellón Municipal Alcalde Miguel Salas, a municipal arena opened in 1982 with 1,085 seats. It is one of the smallest venues in Liga ASOBAL. The big names of Spanish handball have played there, among them FC Barcelona, who visited Puente Genil for a league game in October 2015.

Survival in 2024, 2025 and 2026

After that stretch the club was back fighting relegation. It finished twelfth in 2023-24 and twelfth again in 2024-25, a season settled in the final rounds with games against direct rivals such as Bada Huesca and Bidasoa Irun. In 2025 Cajasol joined the club's commercial name. In the winter of 2025-26 Toni Malla, who had come from Puerto Sagunto, replaced Paco Bustos as coach. That campaign was decided on the last matchday, 31 May 2026: Ximénez lost 32-30 to Frigoríficos del Morrazo at O Gatañal in Cangas. They finished level on 19 points with Balonmano Nava but had the better head-to-head record and avoided the relegation play-out. That secured a fourteenth consecutive season in Liga ASOBAL, where the club has competed without a break since 2013.