Nantes (AFP)

A family affair: more than half of the 14 French volleyball players who face Italy or Turkey on Tuesday in the quarter-finals of Euro-2019 are from parents who have been immersed in volleyball, a specificity specific to the discipline.

In the Grebennikov family, one asks for Jénia, one of the best libos of the world and son of Boris, international Soviet (35 selections) in the years 1980, and arrived in France in 1989.

If he touched other collective sports (football, ice hockey, basketball) in his youth, volleyball was his "sport of heart." At the weekend, I had only one desire, it was to go play the volleyball game, I had more ease, I already had the movements, while in basketball or hockey, we had to learn the gestures ".

They are eight out of the fourteen retained by the coach Laurent Tillie to have a father or a mother, sometimes both, in the world of volleyball.

Starting with Kevin Tillie (28), son of the current coach, and grandson of Guy, champion of France in 1959 with Algiers and also international French.

"We grew up in the volleyball halls, we were there every weekend, there were only volleyballs in the house, on the beach on vacation, we always played volleyball," said Kevin. author of an excellent start of Euro-2019, like the team of France.

But with her older brother Kim (31) and younger brother Killian (21), they rebel at their youngest age.

"We did basketball, we did a long time." Big brother Kim continued (he played in Euroleague, was bronze medalist at the 2014 World Cup and is playing this season under the colors of Monaco Roca Team Elite) , and I had friends at school who were in the volleyball club, so I did both, "adds Kevin.

But drive out the natural, it comes back at a gallop. With a Dutch international volleyball mother (Caroline Keulen Tillie), Kevin goes to the top nets at the age of 15.

- Monnonnu so rather generational -

Eric Ngapeth was international Cameroonian then French in the 1970s and 1980s, and trained several French clubs. His eldest son Earvin is the star of the 2015 European champions, while the youngest Swan has played in Modena, in the best championship in the world, and has signed with Vibo Valentia, still in Italy.

"There must be a part of genetics in volleyball," smiles Thibault Rossard, whose father Olivier has worn the blue jersey. For him, family history has turned heartbreaking on this Euro-2019, since to overcome the wounds at the end of preparation of Earvin Ngapeth and Trévor Clevenot, he had to take the place of his cousin Nicolas, libero.

"My daughter is in the volleyball halls, I do not know if she will do volleyball", jokes the captain of the Blues Benjamin Toniutti, who grew up under the watch of a father, Maurizio, coach and president of the club Pfastatt in Alsace.

"I was taking so much footing in the room, playing alone against the wall, and in a two-hour game I felt like I was playing ten minutes, it was my day on Saturday. the desire and the dream to make my job, "he recalls.

His sister Rina, the eldest of six years, made a career at the top level by winning the Champions League with AS Cannes in 2001.

To this list, we can also add Trévor Clevenot, Jean Patry or Julien Lyneel, who continued the family tradition in volleyball.

"Volleyball is an underrated sport, so it's more generational," says Laurent Tillie as an explanation. "And beach volleyball helps us a lot to get players, even our own children," said the boss of the Blues.

© 2019 AFP