Plenty of Parisians for Les Bleus' Olympic preparations

News

France coach Guillaume Gille has announced a list of 21 players for the preparation of the Olympic Games in Tokyo (Japan). Several Parisians are in the squad.

There are seven of them! First of all, we find our two goalkeepers, Yann Genty and Vincent Gérard. They will be accompanied by Dylan Nahi, Elohim Prandi, Nedim Remili and Luka Karabatic. Good news for Nikola Karabatic, who returns to the France squad after missing a good part of the season with a knee injury. Our centre-half worked hard to come back before the end of the season and his efforts have been rewarded. To this list of 21 players (which will be reduced to 17 for the Olympic Games), eight other members will be added as substitutes. Among them is our right-winger Benoît Kounkoud.

The French team will carry out its preparations at the Maison du Handball (Créteil), from 23 June to 6 July. This training camp includes a preparation match, which will be played against Egypt at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin at 19:00 on 5 July.

Once in Japan, they will play two other matches - against host country Japan (18 July) and then Denmark (20 July) before the tournament begins. As a reminder, a group of six teams will await Les Bleus in the first round, in Tokyo, with the top four qualifying for the next round. They will do battle with Brazil, Norway, Spain, Germany and Argentina, their first opponent, on 24 July at 04:00 French time.

(Credits: A. Gadoffre/TeamPics/PSG)