"He is one of the best players in the world, for me it is clear" launches the right winger of the Blues Yanis Lenne, when the Norwegian journalist Stig Nygard for his part placed him at the top of his annual ranking of the 50 best handball players in the world, published last week.

Dika Mem's year 2022 has been breathtaking, marked collectively by a second consecutive Champions League with FC Barcelona and, on a personal level, by a title of best player in the Spanish championship, where the Catalan club is certainly alone in the world.

Mem (1.94 m for 104 kg, 98 caps) also gained weight in the France team, discovered in 2016 and of which he became one of the leaders.

"This year, he has taken on a new dimension in Barcelona and in the France team. He wants to have responsibilities and to assume them. He was appointed vice-captain at Barça at the start of the season", said Ludovic on Tuesday. Fabregas, his teammate in Catalonia and Blue.

Mem makes him date his change of role to "two-three years", "each year a little more".

"A role that I take to heart, that I assume. But the captaincy does not necessarily interest me: I did not get up one morning saying to myself + I want to be captain of Barça or the France team +. The most important thing is the field: I want to have my place, to play all the matches" he developed.

Dika Mem sets off to score for the Blues against Spain in the Group I clash in Krakow on January 22, 2023 © JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP/Archives

"Small blood side"

In the locker room of the Blues, Mem is one, as captain Luka Karabatic pointed out before the World Cup, of those who have "their say and are listened to".

On the field, he is an explosive and powerful back, able to make the difference in one against one by his changes of support.

"He is extremely complete, able to overflow, shoot from afar, good defender, passer. It's difficult to find him really weak points" deciphers Lenne, who knows him from the French youth teams.

Really, Mem wouldn't have any faults?

"Perhaps still a little sometimes his little bloody side, character on the ground. I sometimes say to him + calm down Dika, calm down +, but he does not listen to me" replies smiling Lenne, his neighbor on the side right of the land.

"What makes him the strongest is that he's been the same since I met him at 16: he's simple, humble, hasn't changed. He's just as hungry as when he's arrived in the young France team, always this innocence, a side + brand new + "adds Lenne, who underlines not to be" perhaps not objective "about his boyfriend.

Blues right-back Dika Mem in attack against Ariel Pietrasik's Poland in Katowice, January 11, 2023 © JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP/Archives

Poached by Barcelona at 18

The right winger and right-back might never have crossed paths, since, unlike Lenne, Kentin Mahé or Nikola and Luka Karabatic, whose fathers played handball, Mem's path in the "sticky ball "was far from drawn.

"I didn't know anything about handball before I did it. Niko (Karabatic) I didn't know him, Jackson (Richardson), I didn't know him... My examples in sport were more players of football. I was a fan of Ronaldo, Messi and Zidane too" Mem told the press at the 2018 World Cup.

He started at 14, accompanying a friend to a detection in Val-d'Oise.

The progression was dazzling, with professional debuts at Tremblay-en-France (Seine-Saint-Denis) in 2015, at 18 in the first division, and a signing at FC Barcelona the following summer.

This early departure in a European reference allowed him to acquire "quickly stripes, responsibilities", according to the coach of the Blues Guillaume Gille.

He has since continued his ascent to the roof of the world.

© 2023 AFP