France 1998 - the country is in football euphoria, Zinedine Zidane and the rest of Eme Jacque's masters became the champions of the planet for the first time in history. At the same time, in another sports world, practically on the fringes of public interest, the women's handball team of that country got Olivier Kumbolc as their coach.
The fact that such a news was practically not followed in France at the time was not a great miracle - a year earlier, the handball players of that country, in their third major competition (it was always the World Championship), reached the greatest success in history, 10th place.
Two and a half decades later (with a three-year break from 2013 to 2016), Krumboltz is still on the "blue" bench, and France is a giant, the most dominant national team today.
Estel Nze Minko and her friends last night in Herning against Norway's biggest rival conquered the planet for the third time - it is not necessary to emphasize that every title came with the 65-year-old Krumbolčan on the bench, after success in 2003 and 2017. Powerful Norway currently has only one on the eternal list world crown more than France.
During the 22 years he was on the bench of France, the expert from Metz won 13 medals from the three biggest competitions, and in addition to three crowns from the world championships, he has one European title (2018) and the brightest gold from the Olympic Games (2020).
Interestingly, the first medal for France came only a year after Krumboltz was appointed as coach - silver from the 1999 World Championship.
The Lionesses fired him in 2012, he returned in 2016.
Today everything seems idyllic when it comes to France and Krumboltz, but it wasn't always like that.
Although he had already revolutionized French women's handball, Krumboltz did not survive the failure in the quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympic Games in London - more precisely, he was fired by Katarina Bulatović from the sevens team and the Montenegrin handball players who celebrated in the quarter-finals.
Alan Port, however, was not even close to his successes, so the Federation decided to bring him back before the Olympic Games in 2016. In Rio, a medal arrived immediately - silver, the first in the history of the magical Games for France.
The Olympic Games remained an obsession for this expert, and his dream, but in all generations of women's handball in that country, he achieved in 2021 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo - in the final against Russia, the same national team against which he was defeated in the fight for the gold five years ago earlier.
How the old fashioned and steel expert has changed
During his first term on the bench of France, Krumboltz was considered an old-fashioned coach, steel discipline, who often lost his vocal cords during matches... In the meantime, he evolved, changed his approach, so today at the time-out you can hear him asking his players what they want to play in the next attack.
"The three years during which he did not lead the national team helped him think and realize that professional handball is no longer the same. Our players play in the Champions League, they know what they need to do, they just needed a new model, and Olivier found it." said Philippe Bana, president of the French Handball Federation, after the Games in Tokyo.
Krumboltz also commented on that moment in his career.
"Like everyone, I'm developing, now I'm less noisy".
However...
"I have to admit I was forced to be a little less energetic," Krumboltz joked.
His great coaching career after the new world gold was coming to an end. As he announced, Krumboltz will lead France next summer at the "home" Olympic Games in Paris, after which he will take a well-deserved retirement.
As one of the greatest of all time. Maybe the biggest.
Bonus video:
