Didier Dinart (left) and Claude Onesta, in Rio -

FRANCK FIFE / afp

A controversial dedication of the former coach of the French handball team Claude Onesta, comparing his successor at the head of the Blues Didier Dinart, Guadeloupe, to a "slave", resurfaced on Wednesday after its publication in the Spanish press the day before .

The dedication goes back a few years, in 2014, when Claude Onesta's book came out, “The reign of the freedmen”.

At that time, Didier Dinart, who later became a coach, was then Claude Onesta's assistant, and received the book with these words: "To Didier, the slave who profited the most from his release ... in hoping that he does not give the chains to his players ... Friendship Claude ».

For six years, these writings remained in the private sphere.

A copy of the document was published at the end of last week by a site devoted to ultramarine news, then picked up on Tuesday by the Spanish press.

“This dedication is completely in the private sphere.

It is a link that I only have with him at that time and which obviously does not refer to racism, ”Claude Onesta told AFP.

“It is in the continuity of the book that I dedicated to him.

And the bias of my management was to say "we will free the players, and by freeing them we will allow them to access levels of performance and accountability that they would not have had" ", added the general manager of high performance within the National Sports Agency (ANS).

"No ambiguity"

"Me, he never spoke to me about it", replied Claude Onesta to the question of how Didier Dinart had at the time received this dedication.

“The Minister of Sports (Roxana Maracineanu, editor's note) was very surprised at the words she was able to read.

Words that seem awkward at best, ”one told the sports ministry.

"She intends to meet very quickly with the two men", it was added.

"The Minister wants what she wants, I do not have to follow up on this situation, neither with Didier Dinart nor with anyone", for his part assured Claude Onesta who must present Wednesday the main lines of his project for reform high-level sport.

“There is no ambiguity,” he said.

“It refers to someone who was my assistant, whom I installed in this situation, who then was installed to take over from me.

If I had had some racist overtones concerning him, it was certainly not him that I would have asked, and to whom I would have left the keys of the truck, ”explained Claude Onesta.

Didier Dinart succeeded him in 2016 at the head of the France team before being dismissed from his duties in 2020 after the fiasco of the Blues at the Euro.

"I think that for him unfortunately his adventure did not end as he would have hoped, that today he is angry with the whole world, and that he was the victim of a conspiracy", estimated Claude

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