The France of handball has had its Barjots or its Experts.
That of volleyball is Team Yavbou.
A nickname born one evening in November 2013 after a prestigious victory against Brazil.
"Friends told me before the match that the great Brazilians, they had to be boiled," explained Earvin Ngapeth, the star of the Blues.
"Bouillave", a term from the gypsy language which originally means to make love without great tenderness.
In verlan, Yavbou.
And here is the sign of recognition of a group of young friends in their mid-twenties, who arrived with full ambition at the 2016 Games and left Rio a little “boiled”…
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A post shared by Earvin Ngapeth (@earvinngapeth)
Five years later, the Blues, who face Argentina this Wednesday for their third group match, are simply the French volleyball team.
Whose iconic coach Laurent Tillie will turn a page nine years after the Olympics.
“Frankly, to say Team bouillave at 30, it's hard, Ngapeth laughs.
It might look a bit old ... But the mood and the mood are still the same.
"
The receiver-attacker and his teammates always have things to share.
But on different centers of interest.
“Now, we are with kids a lot, observes Kevin Tillie, who became a father in early January 2020, the day before leaving for TQO in Berlin to qualify France for the Games.
It's always the joke but we are a little more calm.
With Jenia
(Editor's note: Grebennikov)
, we find ourselves talking a lot about my daughter, about babies.
It's hard to leave them at home but it also gives extra motivation not to be there for nothing.
Besides, my wife told me:
You had better come back from the Games with something
!
"
"We're like a family that wants to succeed together"
Before leaving his Russian training in Kazan to find his former club in Modena, Ngapeth, who has two children, called his future teammate in Emilia-Romagna Grebennikov for… school questions.
“At the time, we sang songs all the time, we were delirious,” recalls Grebennikov.
Today we are more responsible, more focused, more mature, we want to perform.
Five years ago, we already wanted to perform, but it was also to stand out, get noticed and go to big clubs.
Today, we have nothing more to prove on that side, we are like a family that wants to succeed together.
"
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A post shared by Earvin Ngapeth (@earvinngapeth)
Tillie, who had to put in a lot of effort and overcome a few injuries to keep her place, shares the analysis. “Now, it doesn't matter who plays, blows the neo-Tourangeau, returned to France after having made his entire career on the foreign courts. We always want to be the holder, of course, but we especially want to help this collective. There is no unhealthy competition, just mutual aid. When others play, we are happy for them. We've each won titles, we just want the group to win. "
Like Ngapeth, quickly bombarded against his will, figurehead of the discipline, the Blues are appeased. And naturally integrated the succession which discovers the rings. “It was pretty easy,” smiles Grebennikov. We are quite open, we discuss, we share board games, video games, meals, we live together all the time. It's simple and cool. We do not say to ourselves: beware, a potential competitor is coming, we are going to put him in misery. The fact that they are efficient still allows us to raise our level in training. It pushes us to work more. Maybe in two years we won't play anymore because they kicked us out! So we want to take what there is to take… ”
