« OWe're leaving in five minutes, we're coming! » Five minutes later, Nikola and Luka Karabatic prove to us that beyond being legends in their discipline, handball, they are above all punctual. So here we are, seated at Sapristi, a peaceful but opulent café in the town center of Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine). Opposite us, on the left, sat the eldest of the siblings: Nikola, 40 years old, 1.96 m and 103 kg. His little brother Luka, 36 years old, stands at 2.02 m and weighs 110 kg.
But the figures to remember mainly concern their track record. In twenty-four years of career, Nikola Karabatic has won 61 club titles (from Montpellier to Kiel, via Barcelona and Paris) and won 11 gold medals with the French handball team. He was also crowned the best player in the world individually for the years 2007 and 2014. Dizzying. As for Luka Karabatic, he collected 33 club titles and 5 international medals with the French team…
Their accessibility, inversely proportional to their track record, is something disconcerting. It must be said that we expected a rather difficult interview to conduct with the two brothers; French handball players have already proven on several national TV sets – we remember the episode of the decor of the L'Équipe TV set being demolished in 2012 – their ability to very quickly establish a third half atmosphere.
This time, it's not the case. Phew! It must be said that there was not really cause for celebration, after the disillusionment that occurred during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In the quarter-final against Germany, the French team leads by one point. There are only a handful of seconds left to play and the ball is in the hands of the Blues. But instead of gaining time, the French got rid of the ball, Germany recovered it, equalized and ended up winning in overtime, eliminating the French. Terrible.
Sports and competition viruses transmitted by parents
Let's return to a more down-to-earth debate. Since 2015, the two brothers have shared the same locker room, from the French handball team to their club PSG, located at the Pierre-de-Coubertin stadium (Paris 16e). Except that Nikola decided to hang up after the Paris Games. “I’m not going to lie to you, I feel empty, that’s clear,” Luka sums up, stirring his café crème. We went from eight hours a day together to zero. I had to digest this absence… But I know that he is happy to have stopped, to be able to begin this second life. I'm happy to see him like this. »
Nikola listens to him, pulls out a smile from the corners of his lips, mixed with emotion. The eldest of the Karabatic brothers, looking like a wise old man in front of his mint tea, is reveling in these new days in his career: “For the moment, retirement is going well. I just have to learn to manage my new schedule, the new demands. Sort between what makes sense and what doesn't. »
ALSO READ Handball: Nikola Karabatic, the last of the last for the ExpertTogether, they have just signed Nikola and Luka Karabatic, our love story with handball (ed. Flammarion), released October 23. A beautiful book about their family and sporting history. Because among the Karabatic, handball began with the father, Branko, originally from Trogir, in Croatia, to whom the book is dedicated. Also a handball player, goalkeeper for the Yugoslav national team on 42 occasions. He settled in France, in Alsace, in 1984, before moving to the south of France, in Frontignan, in the early 1990s. He died on May 11, 2011 at the age of 55, from complications of a long illness.
“It was our father who passed on the sport bug to us,” explains Luka. “But she’s our mom [Radmila, originaire de Nis, en Serbie] who gave us the competitive spirit, continues Nikola. By his way of always moving forward, despite difficult times. » In their work, it is therefore often a question of transition. “Our parents emigrated to France. School for them was the first way to integrate even before sport, recalls Luka. Their only idea was to make us champions. » “We did what we wanted,” adds Nikola. They gave us the mental keys to achieve our dreams. »
Summers in Croatia and the taste for effort
Throughout the 224 pages of their book, we discover or rediscover some of the most beautiful moments of French handball, a sport which has brought the most titles to France thanks to the Bronzés (1992-1995), the Barjots (1995- 2011), Les Costauds (2001-2008) and Les Experts (2008-2014)… Far ahead of football or basketball. The Karabatic brothers also talk about the players, teams and coaches who inspired them, their rituals and their celebrations between teammates, the atmospheres which marked them but also their physical injuries.
However, there is one, mental one, which is missing. A rather sad affair, for which the Karabatic brothers were convicted and therefore paid in court. On July 10, 2015, they were found guilty of fraud by the Montpellier court for a story of sports betting linked to a match dating from May 2012, which opposed Cesson and Montpellier, their club at the time. They were convicted on appeal in 2017 and both received a two-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros.
Our father said: “Do you have the ambition to become champions? So you have to train, and not just on the handball courts, what you do outside of it also counts.”Nikola Karabatic
It's a safe bet that this dark episode, which they no longer wish to discuss, has united them a little more. The Karabatic brothers continue to spend their vacations together every summer in Croatia, in their vacation home by the sea. This simple evocation triggers the memory machine for them. Nikola: “There was this super-steep climb between our house and the village of our grandfather, who was a farmer, in the hills. It must have been three or four kilometers. Our father always told us that he took the path every day to go to school… We did that by running, we went up to the top to say hello to grandpa. We stopped, had a drink and went back down. Afterwards, we were going to swim. » Luka: “There was a sort of peninsula opposite and each time, we said to ourselves: “Would we be able to go there?” We never dared, we thought there might be sharks in the middle! [rires] »
Nikola: “These moments gave us a taste for effort. Our father said: “Do you have the ambition to become champions? So you have to train, and not just on the handball courts, what you do outside of it also counts.” Once we had finished running, we moved on to jump rope competitions in the garden, sit-ups, push-ups… We got a taste for it. It has never left us again and it is a key moment in our development. »
Before parting, we venture a question that piques. What would they, these two great international handball players, like to remember from their book? Knowing that their career, their exploits and their achievements have been documented time and time again? Luka: “What I would like is for us to be able to identify with an element of our journey. That would be great. May a reader, over the pages, use our story together to say: “Ah, but me too!” Like when I wrote a message for my brother on Instagram when he retired. Many people subsequently wrote to me to thank me because they too had felt similar things at a certain point in their lives. »
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
* Nikola and Luka Karabatic, Our love story with handball, with the collaboration of Clément Commolet and Laura Maurice, Flammarion, 224 p., €24.95.
The Karabatic Brothersvolume 1, by Christopher and Néjib, Casterman, 64 p., €11.95.
THEIR IDEAL SUNDAY. Luka: “It’s a fairly simple and very close-knit routine on the weekend. Sports with our children (tennis, basketball and handball of course) and reading. » Nikola: “I read several books at the same time. Right now : The Four Toltec Agreements by Miguel Ruiz, My Father's Diary de Jiro Taniguchi et Le Mage du Kremlin by Giuliano Da Empoli. » Luka: “For my part, I delved into the biography of Andre Agassi, Opena reference in this style! »
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