France
Coached by Laurent Tillie – who registered 406 caps with the national team between 1982 and 1995 - since 2012, Team France is composed of top players who have been playing together since 2007 when they won the gold medal at U19 European Championship in Austria (e.g. Benjamin Toniutti, Earvin Ngapeth, Kévin Le Roux). In 2008, four of them (Benjamin Toniutti, Earvin Ngapeth, Kevin Le Roux, and Kévin Tillie) became European champions again with the U20 national team in Brno.
Benjamin Toniutti“We have always had a lot of fun playing at home in recent years, because the arenas are full and the support of the fans has been just great every time. We are anxiously waiting this EuroVolley, which will be such a tough competition with most of the best teams of the world. We will prepare with great concentration and determination.”
Team Captain of France
This season, setter and team captain Benjamin Toniutti was awarded MVP of the Polish national league with Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE, Jenia Grebennikov (libero) won the FIVB Men’s World Club Championship and CEV Cup with TRENTINO Itas and Earvin Ngapeth (outside-spiker) was runner up at the Champions League Volley Super Finals in Berlin with Zenit KAZAN.
After an utterly amazing performance in 2015 when they captured the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League title with an impressive sweep of their Group 2 matches and an even more striking appearance in the Group 1 Final Six in Rio de Janeiro, Team France capped their brilliant 2015 season with gold medal at the European Championship in Sofia.
It was the first-ever European title of the national team even though they had been several times on the podium before, with silver in 1948, 1987, 2003 and 2009 and bronze medals captured in 1951 and 1985.
Since 2015, France have never left the podium of major international competitions, with the only exception of the Rio 2016 Olympics, winning a bronze medal in 2016 and gold again in 2017 from the FIVB World League.
Last year, France were top contenders again at the inaugural FIVB Volleyball Nations League, but after an incredible run finally fell to Russia in the gold medal match which they hosted at home in Lille.
Earvin Ngapeth“We are excited to welcome this EuroVolley! The French women’s handball national team showed us the way when they claimed the European title at home last year and we want to live the same experience on home soil! Montpellier is a place where we like to play because many of us have grown and trained there, since it is a Volleyball city. Nantes will provide us with the opportunity to discover something new and Paris is just the icing on the cake for the Finals.”
Outside Hitter for France
