On the ground, his talent is well established.
French international (80 caps), Mathieu Grébille, 29, has been making the heyday of PSG since last summer.
, Beaten Wednesday in the Champions League in Kiel, he found this Saturday in the final of the Coupe de France, Montpellier, where he had accomplished, until then, his entire career.
The 2015 world champion is also an artist at heart.
Like Ymas, another handball player, Olympic champion in 2012, and athlete Rénelle Lamote (European vice-champion in the 800 meters), he chose drawing, specifically street art to express himself.
If he has only been doing it for four years, his passion for pictorial art is not new: “I have always loved drawing,” says the Blues winger.
My father
(Editor's note: a former rugby player)
is gifted in this area.
I grew up in Martinique.
When I was in college, my cousin Rony was doing graffiti, he taught me some rules.
"
In Strasbourg, in 2017, the player has the revelation: “I was walking with my girlfriend and we entered a shop.
There were street art paintings in the background.
I wanted to make some to put them in my apartment.
Without giving each other the word, his aunt and his darling offer him some "Posca", which mixes the felt with the paint.
He also downloads Procreate, an image editing application for digital painting.
He just has to get started.
"I draw what I want, for pleasure"
First element: style.
Grébille, who has never taken any lessons, does not give himself any constraints: “It's very free.
I draw what I want, for fun and without any obligation of time.
I don't have a specific subject either.
The idea is first to use a lot of colors.
I like it when I manage to express something.
He is thus rather satisfied with his first work, prominently in his new home in Paris.
Mathieu Grébille and Salamech, specialist in urban art from Montpellier (Hérault).
DR
A meeting will allow it to evolve. Salamech is an urban art specialist from Montpellier: “I followed him on Instagram. For my birthday, I was able to meet him in his workshop. He told me that I had to continue to develop my style. »Convinced, the neo Parisian draws the background of his work on a tablet, then he reproduces the sketch on the canvas before coloring with his markers. Starting from an A4 format, his paintings are bigger and bigger.
One of them will soon have a special place in a symbolic place: “I used to draw with my tablet during an internship with the EdF.
Emmanuelle Mousset, the logistics and administrative manager, told me that it would be good to bring some life to the back room of the Maison du Handball.
“Grébille began his fresco a year ago before the last Euro, then got back on it during confinement.
The player's work will soon have its place at the Maison du handball in Créteil.
DR
To this day, there are still some details to settle to print it definitively. But the heavy lifting is done. “They'll probably take it off one day. Nothing is forever. "He knows that his career as a handball player is not eternal:" I am considering a possible retraining in the future. I like this quote from Untouchables: “
People are interested in art because it is the only trace of our time on earth.
»Friends advised me to do an exhibition, but it is not yet relevant. "
