CBF Costa del Sol Malaga Women

Málaga's football side wears red and white and gets the attention; the handball club across town chose black, a colour that arrived with a sponsor's kit and stuck long enough to give the players their nickname, Las Panteras. The club itself dates to 1994, formed when two local sides, Insana and Clubai, merged, and it spent years playing under whatever name paid the bills — Rincón Fertilidad, then Clínicas Rincón — before settling on CBF Málaga Costa del Sol in 2021.

What the club built under that changing signage is the more interesting part. Between 2019 and 2023, with Suso Gallardo coaching, Málaga went from a domestic side to one with a European trophy: the EHF European Cup in 2020–21, added to a Supercopa de España the same season. A first Liga Guerreras Iberdrola title followed in 2022–23, alongside two Copa de la Reina wins either side of it, in 2019–20 and 2021–22. A runner-up finish in the European Cup and the league the year before rounds out how tight that run was at the top.

The team plays at the Pabellón José Luís Pérez Canca, known locally as Carranque, which holds 1,788. Among the squads that delivered them, goalkeeper Merche Castellanos and academy product Soledad López are the names supporters bring up first, one for what she stopped, the other for having come through the club rather than into it.

Bera Bera remains the team every Málaga side measures itself against, a rivalry with no shared history beyond the league table. For now, Las Panteras carry a European title and a domestic one into a competitive Liga Guerreras Iberdrola field, still trying to add to both.