After a preparation turned upside down by the covid, the injuries of Luka Karabatic, Nedim Remili and Timothey N'Guessan, and the defeat against Germany in a friendly, the France team is advancing with less certainty than one might expect. imagine for an Olympic champion.

But Nikola Karabatic, he is there.

While legends Luc Abalo and Michaël Guigou retired after gold last August in Tokyo, the 37-year-old center-half and left-back with 325 caps will serve as "the last of the Mohicans", crowned with his status Expert who has won everything (several times) for nearly twenty years, but who is not satisfied.

"For me, this was not the time to stop. I wanted to prolong the pleasure," said Nikola Karabatic on Tuesday at a press conference.

A pleasure to be prolonged also for his coach Guillaume Gille, for whom it is certain that "his aura guides the activity of the group on the ground".

With three Olympic gold medals, four titles of world champions and three of Europe, the Parisian approaches this Euro with "inevitably less pressure than during my first competition (at the World-2003, France 3rd note)".

In the event of a continental coronation, he could well continue to write history.

The joy of center-half Nikola Karabatic, after winning the gold medal with the France team by beating Denmark (25-23) in the final, during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, August 7, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP /Archives

First, he can become the most successful French handball player on his own, a position he shares for the moment with Thierry Omeyer and Michaël Guigou (9 titles).

He could also become the first Frenchman to win four European Championships (after 2006, 2010 and 2014) and then enter a very closed circle alongside Ola Lindgren, Staffan Olsson, Stefan Lövgren, Magnus Wislander and Martin Frandesjö, from the great Swedish team which dominated the world hand in the 1990s and early 2000s (six consecutive world finals including two titles, three Olympic finals lost and four continental coronations).

Very young captain

But in the meantime, Karabatic still manages to experience great firsts: Sunday, for the only preparation match for Euro-2022 against Germany, he was appointed captain for the first time, in the absence of Valentin Porte. , positive for Covid-19 Thursday and deprived of travel to Wetzlar last weekend.

The joy of center-half Nikola Karabatic, after France's victory against Egypt in the semi-final, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, August 5, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP / Archives

"Niko doesn't need recognition, he's the best of all time, but it's very representative of his history," said goalkeeper Vincent Gérard.

"It's nice to be faced with situations that we have not experienced. Even if it is only once, I will remain one of the captains of the France team," savored for his part the principal interested.

If Porte, the second most capped player in the group behind him with 153 selections, will take over the captaincy on his return (negative Tuesday, he still has to present a second negative test more than 24 hours later to play a match), there is no doubt that Karabatic will retain its leader status to guide less experienced Blues.

At the Olympics in 2024?

"The players are much younger than me, so I have a role of big brother. I can room them a bit, I know they are not going to say anything", smiles the one who had been voted best player of the Euro during the last tricolor coronation in 2014 and who is the second best scorer.

A successful collective performance, a few months after Tokyo, could push him to seek a sixth participation in the Olympic Games, in 2024 in Paris, even if he was cautious in September, with AFP.

Center-half Nikola Karabatic, before the start of the second half of the quarter-final between France and Bahrain, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, August 3, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP / Archives

"For the moment, it is irrelevant to me. Three years is so long. I will do as I always do: I set myself challenges for the season."

With the Blues, this is a first for 2022.

© 2022 AFP