Nicolas Chattahy, AS Monaco Basket, body and soul
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Recently appointed president of AS Monaco Basket’s amateur section to succeed Arnaud Giusti, Nicolas Chattahy is preparing to write a new chapter in his life. We look back at the journey of this basketball enthusiast who fell in love with the Roca Team in his youth.
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In the stands, a young teenager looks on in amazement. He literally has stars in his eyes: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen. In 1992, as part of its preparation for the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the American basketball team, nicknamed the “Dream Team”, set up camp in the Principality.
Member of the club since he was 7
Local basketball enthusiasts rush to attend the training session of a team made up almost exclusively of NBA stars. And among the fans, a young player from AS Monaco Basket. It is Nicolas Chattahy, a member of the club since he was 7 years old.
“I came to Monaco to flee the war in Beirut”, confides the new president of ASM Basket’s amateur section. “My father was a player himself. He played in the Syrian national team.” No need to ask where this visceral attachment to the orange ball came from.
Today we have two ‘shopfronts’. The Roca Team, the locomotive we’re all attached to, and the amateur club’s first teams
Nicolas Chattahy
A devoted fan of Magic Johnson, “he had an incredible vision of the game, an innate sense of passing and an outstanding mentality,” but also of Chris Paul and Antoine Rigaudeau, the Monegasque born in Skopje, Macedonia, was naturally drawn to the point guard position.
After an apprenticeship in AS Monaco Basket’s youth teams, the man who describes himself as “more of an altruist than a soloist” led the Monegasque team during the Games of the Small States of Europe, in 2001 in San Marino. and again in 2003 in Malta.
“I’ll keep playing as long as my body lets me” claims the 43-year-old playmaker, now in the seniors’ third team. “It’s my passion. I won’t give it up until my body says stop.”
Member of the AS Monaco Basket board for fourteen years, “my father was a manager, I wanted to help out at the club”, Nicolas Chattahy therefore decided to stand for election as ASM Basketball’s new president.
Big ambitions for AS Monaco Basket
Surrounded by a “keen young team”, this father of three children was elected on the strength of an ambitious project: to make AS Monaco Basket a real training club.
Today we have two ‘shopfronts’. The Roca Team, the locomotive we’re all hitched to, and the amateur club’s first teams. We want to bring young players up through the ranks and, why not, as far as the Roca Team.
I like the environment, the contact with the customers and this pace of life, with flexible hours
Nicolas Chattahy
Roca Team’s biggest fan, “I go to matches every time my schedule allows, even if this year, with matches every three days, it is more difficult to make it to all of them”. Nicolas Chattahy is still struggling to come to terms with how things have changed.
“Just a few years ago, there were fifty of us in the hall to support the first team. Today, the hall is full and we’re playing the best teams in Europe. If someone had predicted that, we wouldn’t have believed them. »
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Despite his ever busier diary, between family life, sport, and involvement in AS Monaco Basket, Nicolas Chattahy is not complaining. On the contrary.
An employee of Monaco’s Société des Bains de Mer for many years, he works at night at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Another of his passions. “I like the environment, the contact with the customers and this pace of life, with flexible hours.”
Day and night, from court to Casino table, Nicolas Chattahy is always on the go. “But I realise I’m incredibly lucky,” he admits. To be able to devote his life to his passions.