Currently he is holding the position of General Manager of French Men's National Handball Team since 2016 after retiring from coaching career.

It remains a record a year later, in January 2011, at The World Championship in Sweden, and on August 12, 2012, he led training that won a second consecutive Olympic Title at London.

Claude Onesta was born on 6 February 1957 in Albi,[1] to Ginette, a Tarnaise and Augustus, an Italian immigrant ( his father's family emigrated from Italy because of Fascism, at first passing by Brazil).

The head of the talented players were Jerome Fernandez, Christophe Kempe, Bruno Martini and Stephane Plantin, and Onesta made the most of his team, leading them to 3rd place of the French Championships 1997–1998, and mainly the winner of the France Cup 1998, having the best results of the club.

Under his direction, France received 2 new world medals with bronze in 2003 and 2005, a year which was also the farewell of Jackson Richardson to the team.

During the World Cup in Tunisia, Onesta was on the verge of being fired after the very bad start of the French team during the preliminary round, in which they were defeated by Greece and forced to draw in the match against the Tunisians.

This goal was accomplished in the most beautiful of fashions, by beating Spain who held the world title, after eliminating the Olympic Champions, the Croatians, at the semi-finals.

In 2009, Onesta led the French team to the World Championship Title in Croatia, where they defeated the Croatians in their own stadium, the Zagreb Arena, in front of 15,000 spectators.

During this competition, which began in a rather laborious fashion for the favorites, Claude Onesta somewhat surprised observers by starting matches without Daniel Narcisse, with the left back position being occupied by Jerome Fernandez, and the right-back position being occupied by Sebastien Bosquet, who actually played better as a left back.

They went overtime to win against Denmark 37–35, and with this victory they won their 5th consecutive international competition, and added a 4th star on their jersey.

Some believed that the "Experts", as the French team was called, had finally run out of luck after a poor performance at the Euro 12 ( they placed 11th), but Onesta quieted the naysayers after he led the French team to their second Olympic Title at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, with a victory over Sweden 22-21 during the final in August.

After 12 seasons of domination and with a record Onesta described as "a surreal 20", he stated his belief that "in the coming years, alternation, therefore, should predominate.

For the 2015 World Championship in Qatar, the French team won four of its group matches and drew one, but not in their normal fashion.