Taekwondo, stabbing and atypical style: Ivan Pesic, Nantes' hero in the Champions League against Sporting Portugal

When Ivan Pesic turned around to harangue the 200-strong Nantes crowd after yet another classy save from Edney Silva, alone at the 6-meter line (29th minute), it was a very bad sign for Sporting Portugal's future in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. The ferocious beast had emerged from the massive body of the keeper, who looked like an old teddy bear (1.93 m, 36 years old), so discreet off the pitch with his gentle gaze and his small voice.

The wild beast finished devastating the den of the Portuguese "Leoes" (lions) ( 32-30 victory, 28-27 in the first leg ) to propel Nantes to the Final Four in Cologne (June 14-15) with his 16 saves at 36%. "He was huge, just as he was huge in the second leg of the round of 16 against Plock (29-24, 14 saves at 38%), praised his coach, Grégory Cojean. Ivan is one of those players, along with Valero Rivera (40 years old), who savor each of these moments. They want to enjoy them because they are closer to the end of their career than the beginning and they master the mental management of these moments."

This was also evident in January at the World Championship, where, coming off the bench, he saved Croatia in the final minutes of the quarter-final against Hungary (31-30) before going on to win an improbable silver medal. On Wednesday, he once again produced a string of spectacular moves, the kind that really hurt the heads of opposing shooters: lying on the ground after a magnificent "bowling" shot from star right-back Kiko Costa (20th), then following up with a missile from Martim Costa and then Mamadou Gassama's shot (35th).

To the point of hearing the "Ivan, Ivan!" rising from the Nantes stands amidst the Portuguese choirs. There were also these two point-blank saves on left winger Orri Thorkelsson in key moments, just after the red card given to O'Brian Nyateu (47th) or when Sporting came back to within two goals two minutes from the end (28-30, 58th).

The Croatian is an atypical goalkeeper, who often retreats when facing shots rather than moving forward. "There may be a Pesic style because I never listened to the goalkeeper coaches I worked with!" he confided to Ouest-France at the start of the season. "It's certainly also because I practiced taekwondo for six years: when you defend, it's always with your arms at your sides and backwards. I won quite a few medals in this discipline, but I was a victim of the categories because of that," he smiled, showing his slightly rounded belly.

The Croatian has had a winding life. It could have all ended before his twentieth birthday, in February 2009, when, as a promising young player for the great Hungarian club Veszprem, he and his teammates found themselves in the middle of a knife fight in a nightclub. His Romanian partner Marian Cozma lost his life, Pesic a kidney that had to be removed in hospital. This puts the sporting and physical setbacks of the years that followed, in Zagreb, Maribor (Slovenia), Meshkov Brest (Belarus), and Stuttgart (Germany) into perspective.

"It took him a little time to adapt to our way of working and to the pace of the French Championship, which is very difficult."

Arriving in Nantes in 2022 with the heavy responsibility of succeeding Danish phenomenon Emil Nielsen, who had left for Barcelona, ​​the Croatian didn't immediately impress. For a long time, he alternated between brilliant performances and spells in the infirmary. "It took him a little time to adapt to our way of working and the pace of the French Championship, which is very tough," Cojean admits. "He was used to playing one match a week, only in the Champions League. With us, it's two matches a week, with very demanding conditions. He struggled, but he got up to speed, he worked hard physically, and today, he's in good shape."

With a save rate of 32.1%, he has the third-best save ratio in this Champions League behind Nielsen (Barcelona, ​​33.4%) and Sporting goalkeeper André Kristensen (33.2%). The H offered him an extension until 2026, which he accepted with joy: "I have rarely seen a club with such energy, such an atmosphere." In June, it was accompanied by the incredible fervor of Nantes that he discovered, at 36 years old, the magic of the Final Four.