Karabatic cements position among legends

In October 2002, Nikola Karabatic started his journey with the French national team. Almost 20 years later, he will be playing the bronze medal match of the EHF EURO 2022 against Denmark on Sunday.

“It has been an amazing journey. I was talking about that the other day with my wife, and yes, 20 years is a long time. I am really proud of it. I am as proud of playing this EURO in 2022 as I was when I played my first competition in 2002,” Karabatic says, looking back.

This EURO has been one for records for the French centre back, who s the player with the most EHF EURO games under his belt. Against Sweden in the semi-final, Karabatic played his 70th game in the competition. He is now 10 games ahead of Raul Entrerrios, and 20 beyond Hans Lindberg, the next active player in the ranking.

“That does not mean much to me, I have plenty of records in all areas. I try to win titles, to help the team as much as I can, and if it means getting records along the way, then great,” he smiles.

With 279 goals scored at the EHF EURO so far, Karabatic is also second on the all-time top scorers list, just nine goals behind record-holder Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson.

And with the Icelandic left wing having now retired to coach Vfl Gummersbach, there is a small chance that the French centre-back will steal his record.

“Nikola is one of the best handball players of all time and I am sure he is the most successful one. I had the great honour to play with him in two clubs, Barcelona and Paris, we have a perfect relationship, and I have huge, huge respect for him as a sportsman and as a person. I was lucky that I could play with him for many years and I know that he is such a hard worker with an incredible ambition, which were the reasons for his success,” Sigurdsson says.

“If he would replace me as all-time record scorer at EHF EURO tournaments, I would feel absolutely glad for him. I took over the record from someone else, so this is part of the story. I would be even more happy, if Nikola would have allowed Iceland to reach the semi-final at Budapest – then I would immediately gift him with this record,” adds Sigurdsson of his friend.

In no small part because of these records, Karabatic is widely seen as one of the most successful players in the history of handball.

“To me, he is the best player in history, and one of the best athletes of all time as well,” believes goalkeeper Vincent Gerard, who plays alongside Karabatic both for France and forParis Saint-Germain.

“He is an example for all of us, playing for so long at such a high level. It’s quite something to still be hungry at his age and after winning so many titles.”

No-one knows if the bronze medal game against Denmark on Sunday will be Karabatic’s last EHF EURO appearance.

“I will keep playing as long as I can bring something to the team and the coach needs me,” he keeps repeating. But, for sure, he does not want to go back home empty-handed.

“It would be a great reward after all the efforts we made for more than a month. We have been building a new team for a couple of months, and a bronze medal would be a great place to start,” he says – motivated, as always, to add one more medal to his already-record breaking record.