Handball hasn’t been quite the same since Nikola Karabatic put the shoes away in the bottom of a drawer. The iconic captain of the Blues, who won everything during his career, leaves an immense legacy behind him but wants to keep the flame burning. We will no longer see him on the field, or even immediately within a staff. The three-time Olympic champion does not close the door to this last hypothesis but he gives himself time to think, guided by a whole bunch of other projects, most of them carried out with his brother, Luka.
At the end of October, the two monuments of French handball (four medals at the Olympics, six world champion titles and six other European champions) just released a joint book, entitled Our love affair with handball published by Flammarion, and a comic strip (The Karabatic Brothers by Christopher Néjib, published by Casterman) is dedicated to them. A way for them to retrace their journey and give back to handball what it gave them. With in mind the desire to extend the legacy. Cross-interview.
In your book, you talk about yourself but also a lot about others. Inspirations that you have had, your mentors, the teams and players who marked you, from your parents, dad at the beginning, mom at the end. For what ?
Luka: When mom looked through it before the release, she saw that a lot of pages were dedicated to our dad. She asked us where she appeared (smile). I told him that we always save the best for last (his chapter is at the conclusion). It was a lot of emotion for her, we didn’t often have the opportunity to pay tribute to her and tell her what was on our hearts. In the book, we were able to talk about all the people who mattered to us, that was close to our hearts.
Nikola: We wanted to both tell our story, that of our family, pay tribute to all the people who inspired us and who were by our side during our careers, but also tell the history of handball. We want to make as many people as possible want to love handball.
The legacy of the land is, however, already great. You didn’t want to stop there?
Nikola: We realized that we had this power… I don’t know if that’s the right word but there is at least this brilliant side to sport which is to inspire. And you only realize that later. At the start of my career, I played sport to win matches, play for the French team and write my name in the history of handball. It’s then that you realize, little by little, that you are being looked at by adults, not so adults, children, grandmothers and that they come to thank you because they started handball thanks to You. We want to continue to inspire. Luka can still do it a little on the pitch, I can’t anymore (laughs). The book was a way to create a beautiful object around handball.
Was the blue, white and red cover a wish?
Luka: She also refers to the swimsuit old school worn by the Barjots (nickname of the French team between 1993 and 1996) at the time. We have always been proud to wear the tricolor jersey. It was through the French team that we managed to shine, we wanted to pay tribute to our homeland.
Initially, I dreamed of us doing the Olympics together but in two different sports
Luka, you were well on your way to tennis in your youth. Would you have played handball without Nikola?
Luka: I started handball at a very young age, following in my family footsteps. There was Niko, it’s true, but there was mainly Dad and it goes from there. As soon as we could walk, we were put on handball courts. The lineage starts from there. But Niko’s journey inspired me enormously. It’s also what gave me the courage to come back, at 19, when I decided to switch back to handball, it was essential as a model. I am the second in the family, we always follow in the footsteps of the big brother and he was already off to a strong start.
Nikola: In my career, there have been two…
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