Some people have fixations in their life, in their career, and think about them every morning while shaving. This is not the style of Valentin Porte, the handball player from Toury, but this final lost (28-26), during the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 against the Danes of Mikkel Hansen, has long remained in the way. throat. And revenge in the back of his mind. He had made it a priority, his priority for 2021. To write, with his blue friends, the only line of his international record that he lacked: Olympic gold.
Sometimes right back, in a club in Montpellier, sometimes right winger, with the Blues, the ex-Chartrain fought every day to win his selection in a tight France team where the fourteen places had become expensive. It is also perhaps his versatility, on this right flank tricolor, which was finally his chance.
“A gymnasium in my name is the greatest honor I have ever been given! “
And yet all was not as easily traced as that to reach Japan. The Blues were forced to go through a cut-throat TQO, in Montpellier soil, facing the catchy Portuguese. Before that, in January, the gang to Guillaume Gille, the coach, had been torpedoed by the Danes, again them, in the semifinals of the world championship and had finally won bronze against the Iberian neighbors.
Before this world, the qualifying matches for Euro-2022 had brought their lots of questions, against Serbia in particular. But he, Valentin Porte, had confidence, he felt that France was ready to write a new line on its fabulous record. And he was right. France has demonstrated a technical and physical mastery rarely achieved. The Blues reached their goal on August 7 with a Valentin Porte who could only play seven minutes and score two goals in this final.
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Valentin Door captain of the Blues
A tear in the abdomen quickly nailed him to the bench, making him a spectator of the tricolor recital. “I had a bad experience in this final. I was disgusted to end up on the bench, but it was a huge joy in the end. The emotion was strong and I still find it difficult to realize ”, he declared on August 15, the day when the small intercommunal gymnasium of Toury became the gymnasium Valentin-Porte. Yep, just that ?! At 31, the former blonde with the headband that encircled his long hair, was present to cut the ribbon of “his” gymnasium. Where it all started in the mid-90s.
“This is the first building that bears my name and it’s a huge honor. It is even one of the most beautiful that I have ever been made, he confessed in mid-August. This gymnasium had never had a name. Young people will no longer say that they are going to play at the Toury gymnasium but at the Valentin-Porte intercommunal gymnasium. That’s wonderful?! “
Number 28 flocked on the jersey
This day in mid-August was rich in emotions for the new captain of the Blues after the international retirement of Mickaël Guigou. Another recognition for this Tourysian who has never forgotten his origins. The 28 as the number on his Montpellier jersey or on the one hit by the rooster. And it will be the first number that we will see entering the field during the next European Championship (January 13 to 30).
“It’s just that which will change, I became the captain of the France team, but I remain the same man, the same player. I’ll just be the one to get in first. Is it still a great honor that I am being paid ?! “
Hervé Paraut
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