So Delgado's game: “If I were the defender, how do I beat myself?”

In only her second season in the EHF Champions League Women, 24-year-old Danila So Delgado has imposed her style and rhythm on the competition. Playing for Gloria Bistrita, she scored 66 goals in her debut campaign and has picked up exactly where she left off. The left back is among the top scorers again this season and one of the leaders of the new generation of Spain's national team, having ended the 2025 IHF Women's World Championship as Las Guerreras' top scorer with 43 goals in six games.

Everything she has accomplished so far connects to a style of play she can describe without hesitation.

“The two first words that come to mind are electric, as I consider myself an electric player, and also freestyle, because I'm more of a freestyler than someone who follows rules and stuff. But, of course, due to the level I'm playing at, sometimes you need to respect the rules,” says So Delgado.

Pace and instinct, reading the space before it opens, making decisions before the defenders can adjust — the Spanish left back tries to do it all. And while sometimes she can be seen as someone who creates chances for her teammates, her true power lies in her shots.

“I'm more of a scorer. Of course, I think I have now reached a point where I can be both, depending on the game and what it requires,” she explains.

That clarity about who she is as a player has not always been there, but she has built it through cultures, coaches and difficult months far from home, and through one injury at 16 that changed everything.

The girl from Zaragoza

Danila So Delgado was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to parents from Guinea-Bissau, and moved to Zaragoza, Spain, when she was just one month old. She grew up surrounded by different languages and cultures, something she has always spoken about with genuine curiosity and something that, she believes, found its way onto the handball court too.

“It shaped me in the way that I am open to getting to know new cultures, and I am always learning from them. I think that also has an effect on my handball.

“But it wasn't just that. My coach, Juan Luís López, had a big influence on me when I was still a young player; he believed in me. And then there were the players I looked up to: Alexandrina Cabral Barbosa was one of the main ones, and also Jackson Richardson. Mainly that kind of player, very electric and they show a lot of character. I always see myself represented in them,” adds So Delgado.

During her formative years, So Delgado played almost every position — left wing for Spain's youth national team, and across all back court positions. Now settled as a left back, she describes those years in different positions as something she carries into every moment on the court.

“Every position has its own magic. I think playing all of them made me take the good skills from each one and bring them into my game as a left back. Because sometimes I find myself running a fast break like a wing. I try to make the most of all those experiences,” explains the 24-year-old.

While all those experiences and her love for handball shaped the path she is on, So Delgado says a negative moment made her see things clearly. When she tore her ACL at 16, she made a decision: handball was what she really wanted, the professional career she was going to dedicate herself to.

The maturity

From Colores Zaragoza and Valladolid, that decision took her to Elche, where she won the EHF European Cup in 2023/24, and then to Romania and the EHF Champions League — her first time at the highest level, but also her first time abroad, far from everything she had always known.

“For me it was a very, very hard change, because it was my first time going abroad, leaving my country, and having to think about adapting to a new language and culture. I have to say that Romanian and Spanish cultures are pretty similar, so it was easier than I first expected in that sense. But mostly, having to be by myself and deal with everything on my own, that was the most difficult part,” adds Gloria Bistrita's left back.

The difficulty showed on the court, too, at least in those first months. But what came out of it was the quality she now considers the most important change in her game.

“The part that changed the most was the maturity, because I also grew as a person being here in Bistrita. It showed me that I need to have character, because you play alongside a lot of experienced people and you also play against them. So you need to find your own way.

“Maybe I didn't have that same incentive back in the Spanish league. Knowing that if I am here, I can be as valuable as the people who are already here. I think that is what changed the most,” says So Delgado.

All those things combined are the end result of how she is on the court and how she leads in the attack, basing everything on instinct.

“Normally, if I'm completely honest, I don't have a plan. I just see what's in front of me and think that, with my physical abilities, I can score. And sometimes I overdo it. That's the thing. But I'm also trying to be more mature and have a backup plan for when my first idea, my plan A, is not working,” explains the Spanish international.

When a defender is set and waiting, when the space is closed and options look limited, So Delgado has a method for finding the way through that is entirely her own. 

“I think a lot about how I would feel in that same situation if I were my opponent in that moment. And I try to act on that instinct. If I see my opponent stepping back, maybe that's a good moment to go one-on-one. Or if I see that my opponent isn't touching me when I'm moving along a certain trajectory, maybe I can shoot. So I ask myself: if I were the defender, how do I beat myself?,” says So Delgado.

Her favourite shot when everything opens up is a long-distance effort through the middle. And the part of her game she considers her strongest is the one-on-one, where thinking and instinct combine most naturally.

She brings to her defensive game the same analytical eye she applies in attack. So Delgado also holds a degree in criminology alongside her handball career, and there is something of that discipline in the way she describes reading an opponent.

“I try to focus on the strongest points of my opponent, and also on the weakest ones. I also listen to my coach, because he normally does the scouting and tells me how I should defend. But personally, I try to analyse my direct opponent and figure out how I can make her feel as uncomfortable as possible, while always knowing that she can beat me too,” adds So Delgado.

Every minute is a new chance

Behind the freedom of her game on the court is serious work done off of it. So Delgado speaks openly about working with a psychologist, about learning to manage mistakes in real time and about shifting her relationship with the pressure that now comes with being the player everyone looks to.

“I practise this a lot with my psychologist and she told me that every minute is a new chance. So I just try to focus on the next minute and what I can do to help my team. I also have to recognise that, as a player, as any sports person, mistakes are going to come, and I need to accept them in order to get better. If I keep pushing myself down, I won't be able to regain the confidence I need to finish the game,” explains So Delgado.

The pressure of being the player her team relies on is something she has chosen to embrace as a strength rather than a burden — not bad for a girl who once preferred football and only gradually fell in love with handball in her childhood.

“I honestly always dreamt about this moment in my career, so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can. It's hard sometimes, on the days when I'm not feeling myself or not playing as well as I want, it's difficult knowing people are relying on you. But thinking about that pressure in the most positive way, it's what makes me feel that everything I did and sacrificed was worth it, to be able to live this moment now,” says So Delgado.

That perspective, that difficulty is proof the sacrifice was worth it, connects to something deeper in how she was raised.

“It comes directly from my parents. They always pushed me to try my best and we always talked about being the best I can be. That's what I carry with me. Not every day will I be at my best, but I will always try to give the best I have that day. That's why I say I don't believe in limits, because limits are, maybe, what you put in your own mind. If you really believe you can surpass them, maybe you can. But you also need to be realistic about your abilities,” says Spanish left back.

And her thinking about handball and approach is something young girls can look up to, the way she once looked up to her own idols. So Delgado knows exactly what that means and what it costs.

“The most gratifying feeling is when young girls reach out to say they look up to you and want to be you one day. I see myself in those girls, it wasn't that long ago. It's very nice and very comforting, and I feel that this is the real meaning of being a professional player.

“I think little Danila would be very proud, because, of course, I am today the person that I am because of her. And also she would be very happy because we accomplished one dream and she would think we are cool,” explains So Delgado.

So Delgado is not the finished product yet, she says so herself, without hesitation. There is still game maturity to find, still more to understand about when to dominate and when to serve the team differently. But her dreams are clear: something significant with Spain and one day a FINAL4 of the EHF Champions League Women as she concludes with “I think I have a lot to learn yet.”

Feature photos © Cedosa380, Dejan Starcevic / WHC OTP Group Buducnost, Kevin Clement