Patrice Canayer: “With Nikola Karabatic, we have a troubled history but at some point, we have to know how to move past that”

L'entraîneur du MHB a abordé le sujet Karabatic en conférence de presse. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

The Montpellier Handball coach returned to his relationship with Nikola Karabatic before the clash at the top of the Starligue against the leader, PSG, on Sunday (4 p.m.) at the Sud de France Arena.

Two handball legends will end their careers at the same time at the end of this season. Even if he did not say the word retirement, Patrice Canayer will leave the bench of the MHB after 30 years of very good and loyal service. While Nikola Karabatic will retire from sports as a professional player after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when he will be 40 years old. 

Trained in Montpellier, the eldest of the Karabatic brothers won a Champions League there (2003) and was crowned French champion seven times, in two stints in Hérault, from 2002 to 2005 then from 2009 to 2013. Year in which he left the club with a bang due to his involvement in the betting affair. 

An episode which plunged the club into a deep crisis and which, inevitably, led to more than frosty relations between the legend of French handball and Montpellier Handball. But time has taken its toll and Patrice Canayer is the first to admit it.

"The greatest competitor I've ever coached"

"With Niko we have a troubled story but at some point, you have to know how to move past that. And with time, we have to know how to move beyond that and look at the situation lucidly,” he declared at a press conference before the clash at the Starligue summit between MHB and PSG on Sunday ( 4 p.m.) at the Sud de France Arena. "A lot of time has passed, at the time I was defending the institution. It cost me a lot but if I had to do it again, I would do it."

"Even at the height of our differences,  I always considered him to be the greatest competitor I have ever coached. He was already like that at 18 and he will end his career like that, fighting every year for the titles. “He's an outstanding player,” he continued. 

"We don't realize the efforts and sacrifices he had to make."

An extraordinary player who managed to beat time and play until he was 40 at a high level, he who would like to end his career in apotheosis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

"In my opinion, he took advantage of a few injuries to regenerate and prolong his career, analyzes Canayer. At 40, life opens up for him, he probably has thousands of projects to implement. We don't realize the efforts and sacrifices he had to make."