One Veszprém HC’s Nedim Remili has a certain uniqueness, being able to perform both as a right back and a centre back. In this edition of the EHF series “Handball Through My Eyes”, the Olympic, world and European champion talks us through his love of handball, as well as his tips on how to switch from one position to the other.

“You know what the problem is? Handball is more than a passion. It is my life, the be-all and end-all of everything for me.”

In a few words, Nedim Remili sums up everything about his love for the game. “I have always loved playing, I loved being on the court since I was a kid”, he remembers, now aged 29. “My dad was a first-division player, but he always tried to put some distance between his work and us. Of course, going to his training from a very young age must have fuelled something deep inside of me, but he never did it on purpose.”

But being in the arena watching his dad train from early on forced the young Nedim to face his responsibilities from a very young age. He dates back to his first training with a professional team, when he was 15.

“I was in the stands and the coach told me to bring my shoes the next day. And all of a sudden, you are facing the problems you will face all your career on the court: how to truck an opponent? How to make a pass without the ball getting caught? Except that I was 15, playing against guys twice my age,” he smiles.

From then on, Nedim Remili never stood back. Trained to take responsibility from a very young age, he has always loved having the ball in his hands when the game got tight.

“I love to play, in the truest sense of the word. I’m a player,” he says, before explaining: “I love having the ball in my hands and being able to do something with it. I am not selfish, not at all, but of course, I love having the ball and being able to make the right decision in crucial moments.”

And while he played only as a right back at the beginning of his career, Paris Saint-Germain’s coach Raul Gonzalez saw something in Remili that no one had ever seen before. The Spanish coach decided to put him at the centre of the game. For a player who loves having the ball in his hands so much, that should not have been a problem, but the left-hander still took time to adapt. 

“I thought it was going to be easy, but I struggled a lot. I had the ball in my hands, but I suddenly had to learn everything again. Because you are in the middle of everything, and every action, every pass, every shot, has to be the right thing. If you pass when you are supposed to shoot or the other around, you are screwed,” he sums up.

That took Nedim Remili a lot of time to adjust, and it still does, as the 2021 Olympic champion is still playing in the centre back position with the France national team. “There were times I forgot myself because I played too much with my teammates, and there were also times when I forgot the others and played too much for myself,” he remembers. “And this still happens these days. It’s a permanent learning process for me. But I love it!”

Source: EHF