His endless legs have been bent under the chair for a few minutes. And like in almost all his interviews, Dainis Kristopans talks about his measurements. 2.15 m or 2.14 m according to official figures, 2.13 m according to the person concerned. Whatever the figure, his size grants the 30-year-old right-back of PSG, which is playing this Monday against Barcelona in its semi-final of the Final Four of the Champions League, the honorary title of the greatest professional handball player in the world.
“I’ve always looked a little taller than the others,” the giant smiles in perfectly mastered English. This was already the case when I was a child. »In Ludza, the town where he grew up in his native Latvia, a few kilometers from the Russian border, he does not have twenty thousand choices to let off steam. “There was no basketball club. In my small town, it was the hand or nothing, develop the one whose weight oscillates between 133 and 135 kilos. I joined my classmates and, as I was tall and left-handed, my coach wanted to keep me. “
In Paris, Kristopans found this summer another coach seduced by his power. Soon after leaving Skopje in 2018, Raul Gonzalez convinces his former player to join him. The latter accepts and further justifies the Parisian interest by winning the Champions League a few months later with the club from North Macedonia. The pinnacle of a career between Latvia, Slovakia, Belarus, Qatar, with a freelance in Germany last season.
“You don’t know how to catch it, it’s so big”
“It’s unsettling to find yourself in front of him, you don’t know how to catch him because he’s so tall,” describes Erwan Siakam, who faced him with Tremblay in November. To stop him, we tried to stop him as soon as he had the ball, to prevent him from launching and picking up speed. Because if he gets there, you’re wrong. “
“Defenders do that with me all the time. I don’t have the best shot in the world, but I have my height and my weight so they try to block me like that, explains the player, father of a little boy since the end of October. OK, that doesn’t have to be great handball what I do. But a goal is a goal. “
Dainis Kristopans leans forward, and we see a smile behind the mask that hides the large face of the Latvian, constantly reduced to his size. Logical when you have to unroll the hem of your jersey and order sneakers – he wears size 51 – in the United States to comfortably practice his sport. The right-back is used to places near emergency exits where to unfold his long legs in the plane when traveling. In his Parisian apartment in the 16th arrondissement, his body overflows from his bed.
“They tried to destabilize me with that”
“No, I don’t mind people talking about my size. I understand curiosity, ”he slips. When the stands welcomed the public, he heard it all. “I was told that I was going to eat my opponent, that the giant was going to kill him,” he breathes. Players have also made remarks to destabilize me. But that’s the game. You have to keep a cool head … “
In France, the colossus has discovered an eye-catching championship “where everyone runs, even the small teams”. The Latvian is still struggling to find his rhythm, like the shock in Nantes where he failed to score a single goal. “My game must evolve, there is work,” he says soberly.
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“We see that he has a tendency to get annoyed on the pitch. Here, it is war in every game and it must be done, continues Erwan Siakam. But I’m not worried about him. He’s not a big nag, he also knows how to play with the pivot, provoke, accelerate the game … When he is in shape, he will hurt a lot. “
