Vice-champion of Africa in handball with Cameroon, the ambitious 23-year-old full-back, recent recruit from Fleury, France, saw a complicated Women’s World Cup and not up to her expectations. Portrait of a player who aims high and speaks straightforward.
From our special correspondent in Spain,
” I am ashamed “. No more than usual, Karichma Ekoh will not put her tongue in her pocket to sum up her stay in Lliria, near Valencia (Spain), where Cameroon is trying to perform well in the women’s handball world championships, without success until ‘now.
Swept by Russia (40-18) and crushed by Serbia (43-18) in the first two matches of the preliminary round, the vice-champions of Africa are struggling in a World Cup where the back of Fleury Loiret Handball, in the Orleans region, tries to keep the team afloat (11 goals in the two games). But the gaps in the score were quite predictable given the lack of tactical vision.
” Game strategy and video should be the domain of Brazilian specialists with whom we worked during the CAN, and it is thanks to them that we qualified, explains the 23-year-old. But they were not renewed. Today, we are paying the price. “
And Karichma Ekoh to scratch the sports authorities on the very light overall preparation of this World Cup, which she preferred to join on her own without participating in the regrouping of Yaoundé: ” The Cameroonian federation received 15 000 euros from the African Confederation for our silver medal at the CAN. How was this money managed? Instead of doing an internship in France or Spain to adapt to the climate, the girls stayed a month and a half in Africa with only two weeks of handball and a single match against the boys on a concrete pitch. “
From Nantes to Fleury
Finally, his real pleasure at the end of the year is undoubtedly to have found the floors of the Butagaz Énergie League (the French D1 Championship) at the beginning of November after more than a year spent in the elite antechamber, in Celles-sur-Belle, a Deux-Sèvres club. Karichma Ekoh shone there, but didn’t necessarily feel out of place.
The second division would however remain its daily life this season, this time at Stella Saint-Maur, if Fleury, at its worst since the start of the season (red lantern with no victory in nine matches) and weighed down by long-term absences , had not seen in her and her versatility on the rear base a good medical joker. An unmissable opportunity.
I had done a lot for others and I just wanted to think about what was good for me, join a D1 club and play in the Champions League eventually, she explains. If I had stayed in D2, it would have been difficult to bounce back. La Stella Saint-Maur has always been benevolent on a human level and in line with my objectives.
Having been recruited by Fleury is not, moreover, a total surprise. The club and the player had kept in regular contact since she almost did her apprenticeship at the training center. It is finally at that of Nantes that she will make her ranges, until going professional with the NAHB, now the “Neptunes”, in February 2018. But while the contract of confidence was initialed for five years, it is broken. in November 2019 when an injury took him away from the pitches and plans of Danish coach Allan Heine. She tries to bounce back in Besançon, but the health crisis which weakens the economy of women’s clubs put an end to her stay in the Doubs.
The latter, however, looked promising. ” The project was impeccable, she says. I was able to show them that I was a hard worker and not a character girl like I was sometimes considered. Unfortunately, the coronavirus has cut the season short. The day I signed my extension, they decided not to keep me any longer. “
Deprived of a club overnight, she does not hesitate to take the hand extended by Celles-sur-Belle which finally offers her an opportunity to relaunch, with the key to the title of champion of France 2021 D2, embellished with the best player of the season status.
Cameroon “on a whim”
Karichma Ekoh’s career in the selection could also have been more straight. First in the young French team, she started off on a good basis: European champion under 19 in 2017, then 7th at the 2018 World Cup in the category, she sees herself well with the Blue as today Méline Nocandy, or Orlane Ahanda.
These selections were one of my best experiences. They allowed me to stabilize my game, manage the strong and weak times of a match and have humility in all circumstances. “
But lately, his name no longer appeared on a summons for Team A. A mystery that will end up generating frustration and changing the situation. ” I lost confidence and I was touched in my esteem. I admit that I did not know how to be patient and that my decision to join the selection of Cameroon was made on a whim. I did not see myself going to the France team at only 27 or 28 years old. “
The Cameroonian federation had approached Karichma Ekoh when she was 16 when she was maturing in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Nationale 1, the 3rd division). By finally saying yes, she did not yet imagine how much a CAN could be a special experience, especially in times of Covid-19: ” Honestly, this is the worst competition I have had in terms of organization, she blurted out bluntly. During the competition, I got sick, it traumatized me. “
To the point of not retrying the adventure during the next edition scheduled in Senegal in December 2022? In any case, she does not hide that her priority ambitions are more personal and that her performances at the World Cup will have aroused the curiosity of listed clubs which will one day satisfy her dream, join the Hungarian club of Györ, five-time European champion, and his galaxy of stars. ” But first, I would like to know the culture of the German championship in terms of rigor and hygiene of life », Specifies Karichma Ekoh.
And if fate does not allow her to follow such a course, she will always be able to flourish in her emerging parallel career as an entrepreneur, importer of natural varnish from the family village in Cameroon. Another way to link his life to his origins.