With Michaël Guigou, the numbers make you dizzy.
This Friday, against Sweden (8:30 p.m., BeIn Sport and TMC), the native of Apt, in Vaucluse, will play nothing less than his 15th semi-final at the international level.
And if all were to go wonderfully for the French team and himself, on Sunday he could win his 5th world champion title, to which should be added two Olympic gold medals (2008 and 2012) and three European awards (2006, 2010 and 2014).
An unreal record, as only French handball has managed to produce in the panorama of French collective sport.
Soon the bar of 1,000 goals?
In all this perpetual quest for gold and this ability to take root at the top of the discipline for those who will forever remain as the Experts of the discipline, Guigou has played a considerable part.
Major.
That another figure is enough to illustrate: 989. As his number of goals in selection.
A few cables away, therefore, from the legendary 1,000 mark that only Jérôme Fernandez, Nikola Karabatic and Frédéric Volle have reached in their careers.
A bar that the left winger might have already reached without this cursed virus which completely upset the 2020 calendar, notably postponing the Tokyo Olympics for a year.
And at the same time, without the Covid-19, paradoxically, Guigou would no longer be there, in the France team, since he had announced his decision to end his international career at the end of the Tokyo high mass.
“I am very satisfied with Mika's behavior and attitude within the group. He is someone who has taken full responsibility for being a captain ”
Guillaume Gille
A retirement age that he has decided to push back.
At the same time so as not to end such a beautiful chapter of his life on the sly.
But also because he still felt capable of contributing to this selection.
To such an extent, even, that he accepted to become the captain in place of Cédric Sorhaindo.
A role that he knows well for having occupied it for a long time in Montpellier and which has therefore not changed him.
To the great satisfaction of his coach, Guillaume Gille, who said about him before the quarter-final against Hungary: “I am very satisfied with Mika's behavior and attitude within the group.
He is someone who has taken full responsibility for being a captain, and therefore for supporting this group in its diversity, its different generations.
He makes sure that a synthesis is possible among all.
It is a real relay in everyday life, whether in the field or outside, in the life of the group.
It is a beautiful collaboration that we are living. ”
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A captain who saved the hexagonal ship in the quarter-finals, while the Hungarian wave threatened to engulf it early in the match (1-7 for the Magyars in less than ten minutes of play).
With his 6 out of 6 on shots, Guigou kept his sailors' heads above water.
Even if he refuses to pull the blanket back to him.
"Everyone had this desire to get the team back on track, but we couldn't do it," he explained Thursday by videoconference.
“Afterwards, as far as I'm concerned, I was really very disappointed with this start because I didn't want to give Hungary confidence.
I didn't want it to be put in that provision.
I tried to get a little more out of my box to help the team and it smiled on me, so much the better.
Not to mention my role as captain, I have the determination to see the France team win.
We had to have this revolt.
It came from me on this quarter, and it can come from anyone else in the next matches. "
"I don't think I'm getting any younger, but I'm aging well"
Michael guigou
His performance against Hungary obviously did not go unnoticed.
On the one hand because it occurred after an unusually complicated start to the competition for the player from Nîmes, symbolized by a successful shooting well below his usual guns (9 out of 18).
But also because it highlighted its side Benjamin Button.
At 39, he celebrated this Thursday, Guigou remains as dashing as ever, as his teammate Valentin Porte was amused to note.
“I like to see Mika like that.
I knew him in this situation in Montpellier.
He is very motivated, he takes his role very seriously and it is very good for the team to have such an experienced player who shares it with others.
He has the right words in important moments.
And this armband gave it a little youthful touch to our Mika. "
A remark that the main interested party took with humor: “With surgery, we are doing a lot of beautiful things today.
More seriously, I have made a lot of efforts for quite a few years, and even more so for a year because I want to finish my career well.
It's cool because it works for me and I feel good.
So I don't think I'm getting any younger, but I'm aging well. ”
Now, the captain intends to lead his troops to the final, after two failures in the semi-finals of Euro 2018 and the 2019 World Cup (and ignoring the catastrophic Euro 2020 completed in the first round).
“Of course we want to cross this level on which we are blocking since the departures of Thierry Omeyer and Daniel Narcisse, he confided.
We have twice managed to have great competitions but each time collapsing in the semi-finals.
Reaching the final would allow this group to continue to grow. ”
For that, it will be necessary for him to get rid of a Swedish formation of which he is wary: “It's a rejuvenated team.
Compared to the team that gave us a lot of concerns at the World Cup in 2017 (33-30 victory in the quarter-finals), there are just a few players left.
But when you see the Swedes' results since the start of the competition, they were still the only ones to beat Egypt on a regular basis at home, and beating Qatar by 12 goals is no small feat either.
If they are there, it is because they have talent and it will be complicated. "
But not impossible for these Blues and this captain with a mission: to return to the top of the world, four years later.
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