PSG now has more French handball championship titles than fingers on both hands of a player. Paris won its 11th national coronation. It wasn’t a formality. To win it, PSG had to wait until the last day of the championship against Aix. And even the final minutes of the last match.
Before this waltz kicked off, the contract was simple, on paper. PSG had to beat Aix to maintain its lead over Nantes. To scare themselves, Luka Karabatic’s team could also settle for a draw. But it was better to avoid it. As chance would have it, this ultimate challenge was taken up against one of the rare former clubs of Nikola Karabatic, who played in Aix for six months in 2013. Aix, which is coached by the man who led PSG when the ambitious youngster won his first title in 2013 in fact.
22 career national titles for Karabatic
We couldn’t imagine that Nikola Karabatic’s farewell evening at the club would be spoiled by a defeat. It didn’t happen, but we shouldn’t think that the people of Aix let this happen. They played a real handball match and as is often the case at the end of the season, Paris had to draw on its resources to win. At the break, Paris was only two goals (21-19) ahead and was safe from nothing.
Elohim Prandi still had to pull out his magic arm to give a slightly larger lead: 26-21 (36th). Aix slowly began to face the facts: the party could not be missed. It was not, even if nothing was given to this PSG this season. When it comes time to take stock, this Paris version 2023-2024 was undoubtedly not the most flamboyant, nor even the best in its short history. He missed his Champions League meeting, did not win the Coupe de France.
But he retains his title and we have already forgotten that he scared himself at the end. However, at the start of the school year, Paris will have to come back stronger if it does not want Nantes, which is just waiting for that, to steal its supremacy which has never been called into question for ten years. She is more and more fragile. Come back stronger perhaps… but without Nikola Karabatic: it’s over, the legend played his last club match by winning his 16th French championship title, the 22nd of his career if we add those won in Spain and in Germany. It’s huge. After the final whistle and the presentation of the trophy, the party, his party could begin.
