There he stood, slim, full-bearded, short-haired.

Nikola Karabatic looks extremely fit these days, almost emaciated.

The grand old man of French handball turns 39 in April.

The marks of great battles have etched themselves into his face;

Karabatic would fill both the lead roles of hero and villain in an American action film.

In his home country he is currently only the hero.

He leads a French team at this World Cup in Poland and Sweden, which has to cope with a long list of injuries - eleven well-known squad members were missing from the French on Wednesday evening in the opening victory in the title fights, a 26:24 against Poland in front of almost 10,000 fans in Spodek, the Arena saucer in the city center of the Silesian metropolis.

It wasn't a brilliant success, more of a work victory with phases of weakness.

Nobody wanted to criticize that too sharply afterwards.

"There was a lot of pressure in the hall, but we withstood it.

That's what matters.

It was an ideal start,” praised Nikola Karabatic.

leader of the ensemble

Because his brother Luka was also outside, Karabatic led the team as captain.

Of course, he is also otherwise the leader of this equally gifted and experienced ensemble, which immediately set an exclamation mark with the success with the hosts: The path to the title will only go through France, and therefore through Karabatic, who acted as a reliable force in defense and was not above a duel.

At home, they give him credit for continuing to stretch the bones late into the fall of his career.

You see him less often in attack;

the throwing power is missing, also the power to wrestle down the opponent one-on-one.

Karabatic knows this, he rarely throws.

But he delays the game if necessary - and on Wednesday he provided the necessary speed for counter-attacks and second waves with precision and a good overview from the defense.

It's a relentless thirst for success that drives this perennial title collector.

Anyone who thought Karabatic, who has long been a family man, would step down after the 2021 Olympic gold in Tokyo was wrong.

He wants to continue until the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

“We are confident as a team”

And before that, I would love to take part in the fourth French World Cup title this year.

"We are self-confident individually and as a team," said Karabatic in Katowice.

He did not lament the many injuries;

his brother and also left-hander Valentin Porte could be back against Saudi Arabia on Saturday or, given the weak opponents, will be given another break until the group final against Slovenia on Monday.

Karabatic said: “We know we can defend very well.

We play with security, self-confidence and aggressiveness.

We only have to let the ball run better in attack.” Up front, the French were never masters of the collective, masters of the moves.

You often see free jazz instead of sheet music playing.

But they don't have to: If necessary, their superstar Dika Mem simply throws the balls into the goal from the second row.

Karabatic himself, now in his eighth season at Paris St-Germain, was not among the scorers on Wednesday.

However, he had previously scored one goal – against Germany, where he played for THW Kiel between 2005 and 2009.

In the summer of 2022, he said he could understand anyone who didn't move to or from the Bundesliga, with the recommendation not to move to the toughest league in the world.

When you see him here, at almost 39, you can only say: the early departure from Germany was like a fountain of youth.