Air France in zebra stripes

It took some weeks of negotiations, but now the next big German transfer is finalised – right before the start of the Bundesliga season. On Thursday evening the French international Daniel Narcisse signed a four-year contract with THW Kiel until 2013.

“Air France”, as he is often called for his jumping skills, is World, Olympics and European champion with France. Narcisse will arrive from Chambery.

Kiel and Chambery didn’t mention a transfer fee (the contract of Narcisse in Chambery was valid until 2013), but THW announced before that they were not willing to pay €1.3 million.

Narcisse will receive the shirt number 25 and he’ll join one of his best friends, goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer. In the first weeks the families of the two players will even share a house in Kiel.

The Frenchmen played for Gummersbach until 2007 and his coach was Alfred Gislasson that time.

“These were two important reasons for me to come to Kiel. Another reason was that THW is the best club in the world,” Narcisse said.

Kiel was negotiating some weeks with Chambery and Bhakti Ong, the manager of Narcisse. Now the THW squad for the next season is complete after signing Momir Illic (Gummersbach), Christian Sprenger (Magdeburg), Peter Gentzel (Nordhorn) and Aron Palmarsson (Iceland) as new players.

Kiel coach Gislasson has big expectations:

“Daniel is an absolute world class player, he’s very fast and he jumps as high as no-one else. He fits in our team as he’s a complete player.”

In an interview with “Kieler Nachrichten”, Narcisse explained the reasons for his transfer:

“Chambery had a big project in 2007, but this project failed. There was no more reason for me to play there. I won every title with the national team, but now I want to win club titles. I had several offers from different clubs, but it was my absolute wish to play for THW.”

With the Narcisse transfer, once again Kiel have one of the best backcourts in the Champions League. Filip Jicha, Momir Illic and Daniel Narcisse seem to be a strong back line.

“With Narcisse, Kiel are favourites in all competitions again,” HSV’s German international Pascal Hens said. His club just signed Croat Domagoj Duvnjak from Zagreb for the playmaker position.

For the first time in history, both clubs are - officially – on the same budget level: Hamburg and Kiel confirmed a budget of €7.5 million.The Bundesliga runner-up HSV and the champion THW will meet in the German Super Cup next Thursday in Nürnberg.