France men's national handball team

France
Information
Nickname	1992: les Bronzés 1993–1996: les Barjots 2001–2008: les Costauds 2008–2017: les Experts
Association	French Handball Federation
Coach	Guillaume Gille
Assistant coach	Érick Mathé Olivier Maurelli
Captain	Luka Karabatic
Most caps	Jackson Richardson (417)
Most goals	Jérôme Fernandez (1,463)
Colours
1st 2nd
Results
Summer Olympics
Appearances	7 (First in 1992)
Best result	1st (2008, 2012, 2020)
World Championship
Appearances	24 (First in 1954)
Best result	1st (1995, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017)
European Championship
Appearances	16 (First in 1994)
Best result	1st (2006, 2010, 2014, 2024)
Last updated on Unknown.

France men's national handball team

Medal record
Olympic Games
	2008 Beijing	Team
	2012 London	Team
	2020 Tokyo	Team
	2016 Rio de Janeiro	Team
	1992 Barcelona	Team
World Championship
	1995 Iceland
	2001 France
	2009 Croatia
	2011 Sweden
	2015 Qatar
	2017 France
	1993 Sweden
	2023 Poland/Sweden
	1997 Japan
	2003 Portugal
	2005 Tunisia
	2019 Germany/Denmark
European Championship
	2006 Switzerland
	2010 Austria
	2014 Denmark
	2024 Germany
	2008 Norway
	2018 Croatia
Mediterranean Games
	1987 Latakia
	1993 Languedoc-Roussillon
	2001 Tunis
	2009 Pescara

The France national handball team is supervised by the French Handball Federation, and represents France in international matches. It is the first handball team to have held all three titles twice (the Danish women's team also held all three in 1997), and the only national team in its sport to hold six world titles and a total of eleven medals at the World Men's Handball Championship. With a total of five medals, including three gold in 2008, 2012 and 2021, France is also the most successful Handball team at the Summer Olympics. As of January 2024, they are the defending Olympic and European Champions.

France's men handball team is widely regarded^[by whom?] as one of the finest national teams in the history of the sport.

Results at international tournaments

Since the 1990s, France has emerged as a major handball team. France won the bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, giving birth to their first nickname: les Bronzés (meaning tanned in French, a reference both to bronze and to cult French film Les Bronzés). This led to an increased popularity of the sport in France, which was already one of the most popular in primary and secondary schools.

One year after their Olympic medal, les Bronzés reached the final of the 1993 World Championship, which they lost against Russia.

In 1995, France won the World Championship in Iceland, defeating Croatia in the final. The team became known as les Barjots because the players played the final with an extravagant haircut (barjot is a slang word for crazy in French).

The team finished 4th in the 1996 Summer Olympics (France lost the bronze medal game to Spain, whom they had beaten in the first round). France finished third a year later in the 1997 World Championship. The team finished 6th in the 1999 World Championship and in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

France won the world title again in the 2001 World Championship organised in France. During both their quarterfinal and final, against Germany and Sweden respectively, they were one goal behind until a few seconds before the end of the game, but scored a late goal and finally win in overtime with a three-goal margin. This great strength of character was cause for their new nickname: les Costauds (the strong, or the tough). Five members of les Costauds had already been world champions in 1995 with les Barjots: Jackson Richardson, Grégory Anquetil, Patrick Cazal, and the goalkeepers Bruno Martini and Christian Gaudin.

The team finished third in the 2003 World Championship. In the 2004 Olympics, the teamed finished 5th. Although they won their five games of the preliminary round, the team lost to an ageing Russian team led by 42-year-old goalkeeper Andrey Lavrov in the quarterfinals (24–26).

In the 2005 World Championship, France finished third again. This was the last international competition played by Jackson Richardson, a veteran from the first team les Bronzés. The retirement of their star meant for the French team the final transition between the early successes and the new generation of players.

In 2006 France won for the first time the European Championship, a competition in which they had never won a medal until then. In the final, they overwhelmed Spain, the reigning world champions (31–23), against whom they had lost the opening match in the preliminary round.

In 2008, France finished third in the European Championship. They were undefeated until the semi-final, which they lost to Croatia.

France won the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. The French players elected to call themselves Les Experts, which is the French title for the TV show CSI in France. The team won the gold medal in the 2008 handball tournament in Beijing, defeating underdogs Iceland in the final (28–23). Thierry Omeyer, Daniel Narcisse and Bertrand Gille were voted into the tournament's All Star team.

France won the world title again in 2009 at the 2009 World Championship, hosted by Croatia, against the organizing country, and the European title in 2010 in Austria, once more against Croatia. As a result, they became the first men's team to hold the three major titles in the sport (olympic title, world title and European title) simultaneously (Denmark women's national handball team held all three titles in 1997). It also became the third team to have won all three titles ever, the other two being Germany and Russia.

In the 2011 World Championship, France held its title, winning against Denmark (37–35 after extra time). This victory, in addition to granting an automatic participation to the 2012 Olympics, marked several achievements:

• it became, with Romania (1964, 1974) and Sweden (1958), one of the few handball teams (on the men's side) to have successfully defended a world champion status;
• it became (and is the only, so far) the first national handball team in history to have won four major titles in a row;
• three players on the team (Jérôme Fernandez, Thierry Omeyer and Didier Dinart) achieved three world champions titles – putting them on par with Cornel Oţelea from Romania in the 60s (had he been present in 2009, Bertrand Gille would also have been one of them, but he missed 2009 due to injuries).

The 2012 and 2013 years were a mixed bag for the team; after an unexpected setback at the 2012 European championship where the team ended up in 11th place, it went on to be the first national handball team to retain the Olympic title at the London Olympic games. In 2013, they ended up being defeated by Croatia in this year's world championship.

2014 saw France regain its European title after losing it in 2012. Of note is that just like in 2009, the team ended up winning the final against the host country.

In 2015, they won their 5th World Champion title against host country Qatar. Thierry Omeyer was elected Most Valuable Player of the tournament; this was the first time in the IHF history that a goalkeeper was elected as an MVP. By doing so, they became the first team in the history of the sport to hold the three major titles for the second time.

In 2016, Les Experts lost their Olympic title in Rio, finishing second after a defeat in final against Denmark.

In 2017, they won their 6th World Champion title at home against Norway (33–26). Nikola Karabatic was elected Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Thierry Omeyer and Daniel Narcisse retired after the tournament, with two Olympic gold medals, three European titles, and respectively five and four world championship titles.

Honours

Olympic Games

• Gold Medal: 2008, 2012, 2020
• Silver Medal: 2016
• Bronze Medal: 1992

World Championship

• Winners: 1995, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017
• Runners-up: 1993, 2023
• Third-place: 1997, 2003, 2005, 2019

European Championship

• Winners: 2006, 2010, 2014, 2024
• Third-place: 2008, 2018

Competition				Total
Olympic Games	3	1	1	5
World Championship	6	2	4	12
European Championship	4	0	2	6
Total	13	3	7	23

Competitive record

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  

Olympic Games

Games	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936 Berlin	did not participate
1972 Munich	did not qualify
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona	Third place	3rd of 12	7	5	0	2	157	143	+14
1996 Atlanta	Fourth place	4th of 12	7	4	0	3	190	165	+25
2000 Sydney	Match for 5th place	6th of 12	8	4	1	3	192	177	+15
2004 Athens	Match for 5th place	5th of 12	8	7	0	1	221	176	+45
2008 Beijing	Champions	1st of 12	8	7	1	0	228	185	+43
2012 London	Champions	1st of 12	8	7	0	1	229	175	+54
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Runners-up	2nd of 12	8	6	0	2	241	209	+32
2020 Tokyo	Champions	1st of 12	8	7	0	1	256	222	+34
2024 Paris	Qualified (host country)
2028 Los Angeles	TBD
2032 Brisbane
Total	9/15	3 Titles	62	47	2	13	1,714	1,452	+262

World Championship

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1938	did not qualify
1954	Preliminary Round	6	3	0	1	2	26	61
1958	Preliminary Round	9	3	1	0	2	66	57
1961	Main Round	8	6	1	0	5	70	105
1964	Preliminary Round	14	3	0	0	3	41	64
1967	Preliminary Round	10	3	1	0	2	34	41
1970	Preliminary Round	11	6	1	0	5	80	105
1974	did not qualify
1978	Preliminary Round	16	3	0	0	3	54	97
1982	did not qualify
1986	did not qualify
1990	Second round	9	6	2	1	3	138	138
1993	Runners-up		7	5	0	2	134	131
1995	Champions		9	7	0	2	218	185
1997	Third place		9	7	0	2	223	206
1999	Quarter-finals	6	9	6	0	3	242	211
2001	Champions		9	9	0	0	233	172
2003	Third place		10	8	0	2	286	218
2005	Third place		10	6	2	2	301	240
2007	Fourth place	4	10	6	0	4	300	243
2009	Champions		10	9	0	1	296	211
2011	Champions		10	9	1	0	327	245
2013	Quarter-finals	6	7	5	0	2	207	182
2015	Champions		9	8	1	0	259	215
2017	Champions		9	9	0	0	282	218
/ 2019	Third place		10	7	1	2	278	251
2021	Fourth place	4	9	7	0	2	267	250
/ 2023	Runners-up		9	8	0	1	301	245
// 2025	qualified
2027	TBD
Total	25/28	6 titles	178	121	6*	51	4635	4059

European Championship

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1994	5th/6th place	6	6	2	1	3	148	148
1996	7th/8th place	7	6	4	0	2	154	141
1998	7th/8th place	7	6	2	1	3	140	153
2000	Fourth place	4	7	4	1	2	173	164
2002	5th/6th place	6	7	3	2	2	180	167
2004	5th/6th place	6	7	3	1	3	189	182
2006	Champions	1	8	7	0	1	243	192
2008	Third place	3	8	6	0	2	231	207
2010	Champions	1	8	6	2	0	225	196
2012	Main round	11	6	2	1	3	156	163
2014	Champions	1	8	7	0	1	259	227
2016	5th/6th place	5	7	5	0	2	210	182
2018	Third place	3	8	7	0	1	244	212
2020	Preliminary round	14	3	1	0	2	82	79
2022	Fourth place	4	9	6	0	3	278	248
2024	Champions	1	9	8	1	0	306	270
2026	qualified
2028	TBD
Total	17/18	4 titles	113	73	10*	30	3218	2931

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided in a penalty shootout.

Current squad

Squad for the 2024 European Men's Handball Championship.^[1][2]

Head coach: Guillaume Gille

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 1 GK Samir Bellahcene (1995-02-20) 20 February 1995 (age 29) 1.91 m 4 1 THW Kiel 2 RW Yanis Lenne (1996-06-29) 29 June 1996 (age 27) 1.87 m 47 91 Montpellier Handball 5 CB Nedim Remili (1995-07-18) 18 July 1995 (age 28) 1.95 m 115 352 Telekom Veszprém 8 LB Elohim Prandi (1998-08-24) 24 August 1998 (age 25) 1.93 m 28 63 Paris Saint-Germain 9 RB Melvyn Richardson (1997-01-31) 31 January 1997 (age 27) 1.90 m 76 183 Barça 10 RB Dika Mem (1997-08-31) 31 August 1997 (age 26) 1.94 m 106 340 Barça 11 P Nicolas Tournat (1994-04-05) 5 April 1994 (age 30) 2.00 m 86 190 Industria Kielce 13 LB Nikola Karabatić (1984-04-11) 11 April 1984 (age 39) 1.96 m 348 1277 Paris Saint-Germain 14 CB Kentin Mahé (1991-05-22) 22 May 1991 (age 32) 1.86 m 162 530 Telekom Veszprém 16 GK Charles Bolzinger (2000-12-14) 14 December 2000 (age 23) 1.98 m 9 1 Montpellier Handball 17 LB Timothey N'Guessan (1992-09-18) 18 September 1992 (age 31) 1.95 m 108 216 Barça 22 P Luka Karabatic (1988-04-19) 19 April 1988 (age 35) 2.02 m 144 168 Paris Saint-Germain 23 P Ludovic Fabregas (1996-07-01) 1 July 1996 (age 27) 1.98 m 129 296 Telekom Veszprém 25 LW Hugo Descat (1992-08-16) 16 August 1992 (age 31) 1.83 m 46 200 Telekom Veszprém 28 RW Valentin Porte (1990-09-07) 7 September 1990 (age 33) 1.90 m 182 415 Montpellier Handball 29 RW Benoît Kounkoud (1997-02-19) 19 February 1997 (age 27) 1.90 m 39 58 Industria Kielce 31 LW Dylan Nahi (1999-11-30) 30 November 1999 (age 24) 1.92 m 45 118 Industria Kielce 34 P Karl Konan (1995-06-03) 3 June 1995 (age 28) 1.96 m 23 5 Montpellier Handball 92 GK Rémi Desbonnet (1992-02-28) 28 February 1992 (age 32) 1.82 m 29 2 Montpellier Handball

Records

• 
  Jackson Richardson is the most capped player in the history of France with 417 caps.
• 
  Jérôme Fernandez is the top scorer in the history of France with 1,463 goals.
• 
  Nikola Karabatić is the most capped and top scorer among active players with 337 caps and 1,259 goals.

Kit suppliers

Since 2002, France's kit is supplied by Adidas.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to France men's national handball team.

• Official website
• IHF profile

This page was last edited on 7 April 2024, at 12:36