Paris (AFP)

The right winger of the French handball team Luc Abalo, who ended his international career after a third Olympic gold medal at the Tokyo Games, has signed up with the Japanese team of Zeekstar Tokyo, has the club announced on Friday.

"I am really happy that it is done. At the time of the first exchanges, it did not seem obvious, I was in the Olympic village in a little confined mode, it was difficult to imagine playing freely in Japan. It will be a totally different experience from anything I have experienced ", explained the player on lequipe.fr.

After France (Ivry, PSG), Spain (Ciudad Real) and Norway (Elverum), Abalo will therefore experience a fourth championship.

At Zeekstar Tokyo, the 37-year-old right-winger will play alongside Franco-Japanese left-winger Remi Feutrier, a former player from Chambéry and Chartres known in Japan as Anri Doi.

Abalo won a third Olympic gold medal with the Blues during the Olympic Games organized during the summer in Japan, after the titles collected in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).

He also participated in the Rio Games in 2016 where France finished on the second step of the podium after losing in the final to Denmark.

The right winger also has three world titles (2009, 2011, 2017, absent due to injury in Qatar in 2015) and as many European championship titles (2006, 2010, 2014).

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