“I had this desire to be a mom.
It did me a lot of good!
“At 34, Siraba Dembélé-Pavlovic is more fulfilled than ever since Matej and Elian, her twins, came into her life a little over a year ago.
And to fill her happiness, the captain of the French handball team, who is playing her place in the semi-finals of the European Championship in Denmark this Tuesday against Sweden (at 6.15 p.m. on BeIN Sports), joined this year the Bucharest club (Romania), one of the contenders for the Champions League.
Like a rebirth after births.
Initially distant, this desire for change has become, over the years, obvious for the 2017 world champion and 2018 European champion. Married since the summer of 2018 with Igor Pavlovic, a footballer she had met before when 'she was playing in Macedonia at Vardar Skopje (2013-2016), the winger could not stand the routine in her life as a handball player.
"I needed a break"
“Since the age of 20, I have chained clubs, the French team, the Champions League, training, I have never stopped, she says.
My body was in pain, it had become mentally difficult.
To be honest, the enthusiasm was not the same… I needed a break.
And when we find the right person to accompany us, we want to sit down.
"
Siraba Dembélé-Pavlovic and her twins, Matej and Elian./DR
Siraba Dembélé-Pavlovic gave birth in November 2019 in Toulon (Var), where she returned after six seasons spent playing abroad.
From home, three weeks later she witnessed the defeat of the Blue at the World Cup in Japan: "I was happy to see my friends on TV and I kept supporting them, but at no time did I am told I could have been there.
I never considered not returning to the French team and my club.
In fact, I had calculated everything in my head.
"
Very quickly after giving birth to her twins, the winger therefore resumes physical activity, then training with Toulon Saint-Cyr.
Arrives the Covid: "I was initially disappointed because of the confinement, because I had put a lot of resources to come back perfectly.
But it also gave me more time to be ready and take care of my children.
The player also thinks and realizes that she has not found what she had come to seek in her club.
CSM Bucharest invites her to come, and the whole family packs their bags.
"It's as if I had never left"
In the Romanian capital, the Olympic vice-champion in 2016 finds the challenge she was waiting for: “Some people will take me for crazy, but I believe a lot in fate.
I do things for a reason and felt like the CSM could give them to me.
This is a new opportunity for me to grow.
The installation is going well.
Igor found a job as a goalkeeper coach at Voluntari (D 1), the club where Grégoire Puel plays.
Siraba, meanwhile, shines in the Champions League, and finds his captain's armband for the Blue: “It's as if I had never left.
Girls are always so cool.
I did not experience the disillusionment of the last World Cup, but we are all starting again at the same level.
We know very well that France is one of the favorites in Denmark, and we endorse this status without any problem.
We have already experienced it during the previous Euro at home.
And we knew how to assume it.
"