30.11.2013, 07:10
My first winter looked like hell

BLOG: Winter is coming and PSG Handball captain Daniel Narcisse recalls in his blog how his first European winter in Chambery nearly ruined his rise to handball stardom. His mother and his current coach have been the driving forces of his career, Daniel writes in his blog.

My first winter looked like hell

I had a very happy childhood on my island of La Réunion. We had a very tight family, along with my two brothers and my two sisters. I was a very active child, but I took school quite seriously. I had to. But as soon as the bell would ring, I'd go to the sports ground next to my parents' home and play until the sun would set.

I couldn't play sports when I was younger, because of a problem with my foot. The only thing I could do, for three years, was riding my BMX. My first experience with collective sports, my first love as I might call it, was football. That's what my mum wanted me to play, but seriously, we were running too much, it was too tiring!

Then I came into handball, through friends at school who were playing it. I was aged 16 at the time, and we were playing for fun really, we were not real competitors trying to win all our matches. It was just cool hanging out with guys from the neighbourhood, just having fun for the sake of having fun.

I had a passion for basketball when I was younger. I think it naturally appealed to me because I was tall and jumping high, but I never properly played it, in clubs or anything. It was very much a passion, a sport I loved playing on the playgrounds on my island, but nothing else.

Even if I chose handball, I'm still a basketball fan too. I remember watching the USA dream Team in Barcelona in 1992 just being in awe of what they could do. I looked up to them, and I still do, even if we're not playing with the same ball!

Going from La Réunion to Chambéry was probably one of the hardest times in my life. I went from training three times a week to two times a day. I was sleeping all the time, even in the showers after training.

And in Chambéry I experienced winter for the first time, with snow and everything, and it looked like hell on earth. All I wanted to do was going back home. But my mum insisted that I should carry on, and I listened  to her, and I think I made the right decision.

My relationship with Philippe Gardent

I think Philippe, who is the actual PSG coach, is the person who knows me best on a handball level. He's the one who brought me from La Réunion to Chambéry, because he believed in me and my qualities. He was really close when I arrived there, it wasn't easy for me, but he pushed me to become the player I am now.

I was a diamond, but a raw one, and I think he did a great part of the polishing. He wasn't my first coach in Chambéry, because I went to handball school first, but he's the one who gave me my first contract, the one who made me become a professionnal and who made me realise the potential I had. But also, that talent without work isn't anything.

It felt natural for me to go back to Chambéry like I did in 2007, and he was nice enough to let me go to Kiel in 2009. He knew I had higher ambitions, and that I couldn't get that in Chambéry.

I think his presence in Paris is one of the main reasons why I came. I know what he expects from me, he knows what he can, and can't, get from me on the court, and to have such a connection with your coach makes it very special, and it's also a key to winning games.

I am, of course, one of the players he relies on to get the others in the right direction, and this is part of why he made me captain this season. Just because he expects me to take the team on my back, to be a leader. He knows he can ask me to do it, even though I'm forcing my nature there. I'm quite a shy person, not opening up easily, and that's the first time I've ever been a captain.

TEXT: Daniel Narcisse, PSG Handball captain