Claude Onesta, (born 6 February 1957 in

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

), is a French

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

coach, responsible of France's Men's handball team from 2001 to 2016. Currently he is holding the position of General Manager of French Men's National Handball Team since 2016 after retiring from coaching career. With his Russian counterpart Vladimir Maksimov, he has one of the most successful Handball coaching records with titles in major competitions such as The

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, The

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, and The

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

. In January 2010, he led his team to a second European title becoming the first men's handball team to simultaneously hold the 3 major titles. It remains a record a year later, in January 2011, at The World Championship in Sweden, and on August 12, 2012, he led training that won a second consecutive Olympic Title at London. He again led the French team to The European Championship Title in 2014 after a victory against Denmark, the host country. He allowed the French team to win The World Championship Title at Qatar in 2015, by winning the finals against the host country. In total, Claude Onesta has led France to 9 finals, 8 of which were won.

Biography

Claude Onesta was born on 6 February 1957 in

, to Ginette, a Tarnaise and Augustus, an Italian immigrant ( his father's family emigrated from Italy because of Fascism, at first passing by Brazil). His father was a rugby league (XIII) player in Albi and Villefranche-de-Rouergue.

Courses with Toulouse Handball

The Toulouse Handball Club has always been the club of Onesta: he began in 1968 at 11 and continued till 1987, when he became coach of the club. Under his leadership, the club made it to the elites in 1995. In the late 1990s, handball was the development of sport behind Toulouse FC and Toulousain Stadium.. The head of the talented players were Jerome Fernandez, Christophe Kempe,

Bruno Martini Bruno Ludovic Jean Roger Martini (25 January 1962 – 20 October 2020) was a French professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His professional career was closely associated with Auxerre, for which he played 13 years. Having won more t ...

and Stephane Plantin, and Onesta made the most of his team, leading them to 3rd place of the French Championships 1997–1998, and mainly the winner of the France Cup 1998, having the best results of the club. If Onesta and the Toulousains reached the final for the France Cup 1999, the club would not have been able to confirm their best results, especially as the Toulouse sports project was aborted in the 2000s because of the disappearance of the basketball club.

The difficult debut for the French team

Before the Championship Title, he took the place of Daniel Costantini as the head coach of the French team. Under his direction, France received 2 new world medals with bronze in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, a year which was also the farewell of

Jackson Richardson Jackson Richardson (born 14 June 1969) is a French former handball player. Regarded as one of the best and most influential handball players of his era, Richardson won fourteen titles at club level and the World Championship in 1995 and 2001 wit ...

to the team. During the World Cup in Tunisia, Onesta was on the verge of being fired after the very bad start of the French team during the preliminary round, in which they were defeated by Greece and forced to draw in the match against the Tunisians. On January 29, 2005, The French had to decide to leave or to double, which was necessary against Denmark (32-26), to save the name of their coach, before winning third place in the tournament with a win (26-25) against the Tunisians, the hosts of the tournament.

At the head of a legendary team

At the 2006 European Championship, he made his mark on French Handball by achieving a goal which his predecessor could not: winning a medal in a European Championship, and this was especially impressive considering that the European Championship was deemed the most difficult competition, and that handball was a sport in which all the best teams were European. This goal was accomplished in the most beautiful of fashions, by beating Spain who held the world title, after eliminating the Olympic Champions, the Croatians, at the semi-finals. The 2007 World Championship the following year was a difficult episode for Onesta and the French, as they were defeated by the German team. At the end of that match, Onesta declared: "A sense of injustice was present but we are still proud. It was a heroic game. This worldwide game is made for the Germans and the pressure of international authority certainly played. We knew we had won by a 3-4 goal lead." For the 2008 European Championship, which took place in Norway, Claude Onesta had to deal with the withdrawal of two key players,

Michaël Guigou Michaël Guigou (born 28 January 1982) is a French former handball player and current coach. As a player he played the French national team. He was included in the European Handball Federation Hall of Fame in 2023. Regular member of the France ...

and

Joël Abati Joël Marc Abati (born 25 April 1970) is a French handball player who has played ten years for SC Magdeburg in Germany until 2007. After returning to France and playing two years for Montpellier HB he ended his professional career in 2009, having ...

, as well as the disturbed preparation of another player, Bertrand Gille, because of a shoulder injury. The French team won all three of its games in the first round, and went on to beat Spain and Germany in the main round, securing its spot in the semi-finals. However, when it came to their match against the Croatian team, led by the brilliant

Ivano Balić Ivano Balić (; born 1 April 1979) is a Croatian former professional handballer who is currently part of the coaching staff at RK Split. Renowned for his speed, creativity, movement and charisma as a player, Balić won the 2003 World Men's Handb ...

and

Petar Metličić Petar Metličić (born 25 December 1976) is a Croatian former handball player. He was captain of the Croatian national team2008 in Beijing. The French Team, first in its group, faced the Russian Team in the quarter-final, defeating them 27–24. They went on to face the Croatian team once again at the semi-final. The French team took their revenge on the European Handball Champions, defeating them 25–23, largely thanks to a stunning performance by Cedric Burdet, a player who Onesta brought back into handball after he was thought to end his career a few months earlier. At the finals, France faced off against Iceland and defeated them 28–23, winning their first Olympic title ever. In 2009, Onesta led the French team to the

Title in Croatia, where they defeated the Croatians in their own stadium, the Zagreb Arena, in front of 15,000 spectators. With this victory, the French handball team entered the small circle of teams to have held both Olympic World Titles, after Germany (1936–1938), Yugoslavia (1984–1986) and the CIS-Russia (1992–1993). With these titles, Onesta became the first French national coach to have obtained 3 major titles: The European Championship, The Olympic Championship, and The World Championship. He was also the second to have achieved this feat in handball, after Russian coach, Vladimir Maximov. On 31 January 2010, the French handball team achieved a historic feat. With the defeat of the Croatians 25–21 at the European Championship in Austria, the French team simultaneously held all three major titles: The European Championship, the World Championship, and The Olympic Championship. During this competition, which began in a rather laborious fashion for the favorites, Claude Onesta somewhat surprised observers by starting matches without Daniel Narcisse, with the left back position being occupied by Jerome Fernandez, and the right-back position being occupied by Sebastien Bosquet, who actually played better as a left back. This tactic had the effect of focusing on the players in the back, and France profited from this decision in the second period. On 30 January 2011, the French team was back at the World Championship final. They went overtime to win against Denmark 37–35, and with this victory they won their 5th consecutive international competition, and added a 4th star on their jersey. Some believed that the "Experts", as the French team was called, had finally run out of luck after a poor performance at the

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

( they placed 11th), but Onesta quieted the naysayers after he led the French team to their second Olympic Title at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, with a victory over Sweden 22-21 during the final in August. Onesta's team was described by many commentators as the best team in history. At the end of the match, Ivano Balic commented : " It’s the best team of all time!". Six months later, the Blues were at the World Championship in Spain. They bowed out at the quarter-finals when they lost to the Croats.. After 12 seasons of domination and with a record Onesta described as "a surreal 20", he stated his belief that "in the coming years, alternation, therefore, should predominate. And we will share the podium." And yet, on 26 January 2014, Onesta once again led the French team to the European Championship Title. The Blues were the underdogs when they faced off against Denmark, considering their recent loss at the World Championship and the fact that Denmark had the luxury of playing in their own stadium, but they dominated the championship, and, in the final, managed to defeat the Danes in a sure victory. Leading 13–4 after 17 minutes and 23–16 at halftime, the Blues demonstrated, silencing the 15,000 fans in red and white. "Public pressure became negative for the Danes." recounted Onesta at the end of the match, "Some players, like Landin, were thrown off balance." Onesta's methods were discussed: Notably his tendency to conserve the key players (

Nikola Karabatic Nikola () is a given name which, like Nicholas, is a version of the Greek ''Nikolaos'' (Νικόλαος) and it means "the winner of the people". It is common as a masculine given name in the South Slavic countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulg ...

Luc Abalo Luc Kangny Abalo (born 6 September 1984) is a French retired handball player. He was inducted into the EHF Hall of Fame in 2024. Being a member of the national team from 2005, he won gold medals at the 2008, 2012 and 2020 Olympics, 2009, 2011 ...

Thierry Omeyer Thierry Omeyer (born 2 November 1976) is a retired French handball goalkeeper. A member of the French national team since 1999, he has won all major titles with the team: world champion (five times), European champion (three times) and Olympic ...

...) and integrate the younger players such as

Valentin Porte Valentin Porte (born 7 September 1990) is a French handball player for Montpellier Handball. He won the European title in 2014, the world title in 2015 and 2017, and an Olympic gold medal in 2020. He also won EHF Champions League in 2018 with Mo ...

and Luka Karabatic. For the 2015 World Championship in Qatar, the French team won four of its group matches and drew one, but not in their normal fashion. During the eighth round and the quarter-final, the team got back into their stride, crushing Argentina 33–20 and Slovenia 32–23. In the semifinal, they faced Spain and defeated them 26–22, largely thanks to

, who was crowned MVP. The team went on win the Championship, defeating Qatar 25–22 in the final round.

Personal life

His daughters Marina and Laura are also handball players, who play in the Women's Toulouse Handball Team. His cousin,

Gérard Onesta Gérard Onesta (born 5 August 1960) is a French politician and was Member of the European Parliament for the South West of France. He is a member of Europe Écologie–The Greens, part of the European Greens. On 20 July 2004 he was re-elected ...

, is a former leader of the Greens (and now the Europe Ecology Greens) in the South West of France. He was a European MP from 1999 to 2009 and a four time vice-president of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

. He also has an older brother, Bruno Onesta, who is a professor of technology at a French High School in Puducherry, India.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onesta, Claude French male handball players French handball coaches Handball coaches of international teams 1957 births Living people Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for France Olympic silver medalists for France Sportspeople from Albi Fenix Toulouse Handball players French sports executives and administrators 20th-century French sportsmen