Paris (AFP)

Nikola Karabatic, Olympic gold medalist with the Blues for the third time in Tokyo in August, told coach Guillaume Gille that he "did not want to stop the France team for the moment," explained the 37-year-old center-half in an interview with AFP.

Q: How was your return to the club after the Olympics?

A: "We had a little less than two weeks of break between the moment we stopped and the moment we resumed with PSG. That's the maximum that the teams were able to have. It's already good. There are years when we didn't have a week so we're not going to complain. The recovery, at the beginning, was a bit difficult (physically) even if it's much easier when you come back with a Gold medal. I needed a week before the fatigue left. "

Q: You said you didn't realize after the final won against Denmark.

Looking back, how do you live this third gold medal?

A: "When I think back to the fact that we won the Games, I can see how great it is, how important this medal is, for the team and the French hand. It was an adventure. incredible. At the individual level, after having had a year where I injured myself (rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee in October, editor's note), the fact of being able to come back quickly, to play these Games and to win, it's just unbelievable. I feel like I have touched the Grail! "

Nikola Karabatic expresses his happiness at the end of the victory of the Blues in the final of the Olympic handball tournament in Tokyo, August 7, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP / Archives

Q: Do you plan to continue with the France team?

A: "After the Games, I was asked the question but first I wanted to savor and I didn't want to think about it at all. And Guillaume called me last week. We discussed it and I told him that I didn't want to stop the France team for the moment. We were on the same wavelength. "

Q: How do you see things?

A: "It's season after season and taking stock. But it's exactly the same for my end of career."

Q: Are you still in discussions to extend with PSG?

A: "I have one year of contract left and the general manager + Titi + Omeyer has contacted my agent. I am awaiting a proposal from the club both at the sporting level and at the level of retraining."

Nikola Karabatic with PSG during the Final Four against Nantes in Cologne, June 13, 2021 Ina Fassbender AFP / Archives

Q: Could participating in the Games in Paris be an objective, even if the handball tournament will take place not in Paris but near Lille?

A: "For now, it is irrelevant to me. Three years is so long. I don't know where I will be in three years. I will do as I always do: I set myself challenges over the season. There, now, it is with PSG the resumption of the championship then with the France team, there will be the Euro in January (January 13-30 in Slovakia and Hungary, editor's note). that there is later, I don't even think about it because there is no point in it. I don't know where I will be then. "

Q: What still motivates you after all these years and these titles?

A: "Firstly I have fun on the pitch, and secondly I have the feeling of being useful to the team and of having been good. I have this feeling with the feedback I have had from my teammates. , coaches and my relatives. So all that, combined with my desire and the fact that I feel good physically, that my knee has recovered well, that's what pushed me, in agreement with my family, to continue this season again. And then we'll see. "

Q: Helping PSG to win a first Champions League is one of your last goals?

Nikola Karabatic crowned Olympic handball champion with the Blues in Tokyo, August 7, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP / Archives

A: "My goals are always to win the next match. The next one is Istres (Friday 10th in the Starligue) so that's my next challenge. If one day we manage to win the Champions League, of course I will be the happiest in the world but here we are going to start a new cycle with Paris Saint-Germain. Players have left, next year (2022-2023), there will be a renewal of players with Mikkel Hansen who's going to leave. We'll see what happens. "

Interview by Ludovic LUPPINO

© 2021 AFP