When he was just 17 years old, he made his debut with the legendary Patrice Canaje for one of the strongest European teams at the time - Montpellier, it was known that a star was born.
However, no one could have guessed that the bright future awaited the boy born in Niš in 1984, from a Croatian father and a Serbian mother. The team already had players who became the foundation of the best national team of all time - the famous winger Gregory Anquetil, 25-year-olds Teri Omeje, Jerome Fernandez i Didier Denar, 19 years old Mihael Gigu...
Nikola Karabatic has, however, become greater than all of them. He has long been the most trophy-winning handball player of all time, he pushed all boundaries on the 40x20 meter rectangle, so no one in the Balkans dares to say that he was better than him. Veselin Vujović or Ivano Balić, no one in Scandinavia can think of that for Magnus Vislander or anyone else from the famous "Bengan boys", not for Mikel Hansen...
The best handball player of all time, perhaps one of the best athletes who ever walked this planet, at the European Championship in Germany "bolstered" an already spectacular collection of medals.
With his triumph over Denmark after extra time in the final (33:31), he became the most trophy-winning player in the history of the Old Continent championship, as he reached the legendary Swedes Wislander with the fourth gold. Stefan Levgren, Stefan Olson, Magnus Anderson, Martin Frandesje i Ola Lindgren, but there are also two bronzes, which they did not win.
- This is incredible, I will have something to tell my grandchildren, and we will watch a few games to describe to them the emotions I was going through. I am very happy, because the whole family was in the audience, so we could share everything after the match. It's a very nice feeling, I'm very happy - said the older of the Karabatić brothers.
During his career, in the jersey of the "experts", as the generation he led in every sense of the word was named, he won an unreal 17 medals! And as many as 11 gold medals - four each at the European and World Championships, and three at the Olympic Games. He also took two silver and four bronze.
Since making his debut back in June 2001, he has been national champion every time with his clubs - 15 times in France with Montpellier and Paris Saint-Germain, four in Germany with Kil and two with Barcelona in Spain. He also won the Champions League three times, and the only time he didn't do it was with the Saints.
The only blemish in his career is that in 2012 he was convicted of illegal betting on Montpellier matches, for which he received a suspended two-month prison term and paid a 10.000-euro fine.
All that was forgotten to him, because he proved countless times how great he is. Although he celebrates his 40th birthday in April, at the EHF Euro he was the driving force of the "experts" both in defense and attack, and he knew how to tell the coach Guillaume Gilles when to take him out of the game and put in a phenomenal shooter Eloim Prandi. He admitted, however, that there was a bit of selfishness, but not because of goals, assists or minutes, but because of the hunger for trophies.
- Of course, it is a great motivation when the family is there, when the children look at you. They give you great energy. But I didn't play this tournament for the family, for the children, I didn't play for the audience watching us either. I played for myself, because this is my last season and that brought me a lot of energy, because I knew that this was my last European Championship - said Karabatić.
That attitude was also evident in his game, as he played much better games than in the last few major competitions. He is ready as in his best days, even though he is on the threshold of his fifth decade, because he decided to sacrifice himself in the last season on the handball courts. And by the end of it, there are many goals - the double crown in France and the first title in the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain and the most important thing at the end, gold at the Olympic Games in Paris...
Bonus video:
