“Who is the star singing on stage tonight? » asks Medhi who is walking around the room around 8 p.m. No, the star in question doesn’t sing, except perhaps in the shower. He practices another art with a ball that sticks to his fingers and it’s been going on for more than twenty years. But as everything comes to an end, even the best things, the star in question ended his farewell tour on May 31, which began in September 2023.
Nikola Karabatic, since it’s obviously him we’re talking about, played in front of 14,840 people in a packed Accor Arena in his last club match. For him, the record for a match in the French Handball Championship was broken. Karabatic has played more than a thousand matches since a first anonymous one with Montpellier at the beginning of the century. And the last one has arrived: “We came to see a handball match,” smile Bastien and Florane in the queue which extends slowly around the large room. Above all, we came to see a legend. We wanted to be there to say goodbye and thank you to Nikola. It’s like happiness, it’s when he’s gone that we’ll realize we’ll miss him. »
Djokovic’s tribute
There was indeed this Friday evening for PSG, a new French championship title to seek. To win an 11th, Paris had to win in front of Aix. This is how it happened: PSG are champions, for the 11th time in their history after a match won 39-36 against Aix. Nothing could spoil Nikola Karabatic’s jubilee. When the number 44 of PSG presented himself to the call of the two teams as usual, the room stood up as one man. The three-time Olympic champion was entitled to his first tribute.
And if there is any doubt about the place that this man occupies in world sport, we only had to look at who he gave a long hug to before kick-off. A champion from the same lands as him in Serbia and sitting in the front row at the end of the Parisian bench: Novak Djokovic came to greet an almost compatriot between two rounds at Roland-Garros.
Novak Djokovic, competing at Roland-Garros, took a short break between two rounds to greet Nikola Karabatic. Icon Sports
When the best tennis player in history meets the best handball player of all time, what can they tell each other? It stays between them. “He’s a friend, I’m very happy to be here this evening,” confided the last winner Porte d’Auteuil to BeIN Sports. He has an exceptional career and is a total legend. » He knows what he’s talking about. The eldest of the siblings played his last score in front of all the people he loves: his family, his loved ones, his friends. And a few other stars, like Pascal Obispo, Kristina Mladenovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He will remember it.
And now, the Olympics
As is often the case, the hero of the evening began the latter part of his club career sitting on the sidelines. We had to wait a quarter of an hour before seeing his beard on the field. Without any particular ovation: at that moment, Aix was holding the prize high and everyone had one eye on the scoreboard. Maybe not on him. So, the hero had to touch his first ball to be saluted. And when he scored, the Arena screamed his name with one voice. When the match ended, no one moved from their place. The lights went out, the club anthem invaded the room, the kop sang and it was Novak Djokovic himself who brought the champions trophy into the central circle. And the players all came in to receive him with a flocked jersey of number 44, that of Karabatic. At 10:44 p.m., the hero entered arm in arm with his little brother Luka and the ovation made the walls shake. And it was Nikola, defeating his captain brother who lifted the trophy, happy as a kid. Did he shed a little tear? sure and certain when Mikkel Hansen, Jackson Richardson, Kentin Mahé and all the biggest stars of this game said a little word to him on the giant screens summed up by a “thank you Niko”. Even more so when his family accompanied him on the podium after a hug to his mentor Noka Serdarusic. “Thank you to Aix for making my last match a difficult match and not a gala match,” confides the legend. I lived my dream of being one of the best players in the world. I believe in destiny and in the end, I exceeded all my dreams. I don’t even realize. Handball is a playground sport and today I feel like I’m Novak Djokovic, a real star and that my sport is loved. I’m so proud and I feel so much love with this ending clap. I have so many memories in this room where I played for the first time at 15 years old. Thank you, thank you to everyone and for everything. I love you. »
This Friday, in a room where he won a lot, won a world champion title in 2017, Nikola Karabatic said goodbye to his audience. But like the song says, it’s just goodbye, not goodbye yet. We’ll see him again soon and not so far from there. Karabatic is not quite finished with his gargantuan career. He still has one last challenge to take on: leading the French team to a new Olympic title. It would be the fourth for him, it seems unthinkable. But isn’t he already a four-time world and European champion? If.
