Shine now, or prepare for the future at the risk of sacrificing the present.
This is often the painful dilemma facing coaches in all countries and in all disciplines.
It is never easy to know exactly when to turn a page to open another.
When to pass from one generation to another.
Sometimes it happens naturally, between the retirement of some, the injuries of others and the emergence of a youth with long teeth and already recognized talent.
But this is not always the case.
Above all, this is regularly accompanied by a period of vagueness within a selection, with the quality of results more uncertain.
This dilemma is all the more difficult to manage when the Olympic Games at home are looming in less than two years, where French handball – doubly titled in Tokyo in 2021 for both men and women – will be particularly awaited.
And the first step towards 2024 will be on the side of Skopje for the Blues, with a Euro (November 4-20) co-organized by North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.
A great first in the competition, which will also mark a great last since the next edition will take place with 24 participants, and no longer only 16. A continental competition during which Estelle Nze Minko and her teammates intend to maintain their standing, they who remain on three European podiums in a row: bronze in 2016, gold in 2018 and silver in 2020.
What their world final a year ago, lost to Norway (22-29), only supports.
Without being a guarantee of success.
Already, no one is unaware of the difficulty of a Euro where, unlike a World Championship or the Olympics, no team plays the role of expiatory victim on the altar of a representation if not balanced, at least universal.
Then, the coach Olivier Krumbholz is confronted, on this competition, with the obligation of a significant renewal of his workforce with six novices leaving for Skopje: the goalkeepers Floriane André and Camille Sinceet, the backs Audrey Dembélé, Léna Grandveau and Deborah Lassource, as well as pivot Oriane Ondono.
Hence, inevitably, a lack of experience that the Nze Minko, Cléopatre Darleux, Grace Zaadi or even Béatrice Edwige will endeavor to compensate for.
But somewhere,
We must not put the cart before the horse, we are never safe from anything and there is really no point in wanting to go too fast.
Pauletta Foppa
Like a Pauletta Foppa who, at 21, wants to take everything without waiting.
"
I'm more of a step-by-step type, I don't see any further than this European championship and the idea of giving the best of myself, in order to climb at least into the last four
", confided to the site of the Federation the pivot.
“
I fully intend to then concentrate fully on my club to raise my head and get back in the direction of travel.
We will have plenty of time next summer to look forward to the 2023-24 season and the Olympic Games.
We must not put the cart before the horse, we are never safe from anything and there is really no point in wanting to go too fast.
»
A strong but affordable group
To go far, the French handball players must not miss their start this Saturday (6:00 p.m.) against North Macedonia, which has only played in one major international competition since the beginning of the 2010s, the Euro in 2012 ended on an anonymous 12th place.
But the Macedonians will have the popular fervor of their Skopje cauldron on their side in order to hope to create the feat.
Then, the Blues will face Romania (October 7, 8:30 p.m.) Cristina Neagu, the top scorer in the history of the Euro back in selection at 33 after a break.
Before ending with the Netherlands, world champions in 2019 but now in reconstruction.
Three tough opponents, but who have nothing of ogres.
Provided they finish in the top three, the
The French team will probably cross paths with the Germans, the Spaniards and the Poles in the main round, whom they have just outclassed twice in preparation (33-26, then 30-19).
The sign that it can shine now, without having to wait until 2024...
