Nantes handball players, European champions: "One of those divine surprises that no one had seen coming"

The Nantes handball players are European champions!

The Nantes women won the European League by dominating the Hungarians of Siofok (36-31) on Sunday.

For Virginie Phulpin, we must realize that this match is one of the victories that mark the history of French collective sport. 

"There are predestined nicknames. The Roses are those of the Nantes women who have added colors to the French sporting spring. European Champions! If we had been told that at the start of the season, nobody would have believed it Nantes had never taken part in a European final phase. 10 years ago, this team was still playing at the third national level, the coach only arrived last summer, and the president only in January .

Admit that it sounds more like the description of a growing little thumb than that of a European ogre. No one believed it except them. In sport we often talk about the strength of the collective, without always knowing exactly what this ready-made expression hides. But on Sunday, we saw this idea of ​​a collective materialize before our eyes. In the final, the Nantes women brought down the Hungarians from Siofok, the title holders and arch-favorites, barely shivering at the end of the match.

They dominated them head and shoulders, because they were together with a common goal and with a solidarity that thwarts all predictions of games played in advance.

This is also the beauty of sport.

This is the best answer to all those who dream of closed leagues where only those who are expected are invited to the party.

No, that's not sport.

What takes us into moments out of time are these divine surprises that no one had seen coming.  

It is also the best answer to a very complicated season for handball ...

Cries, tears, laughter and smiles to forget the empty stands. The Nantes women gave us an ode to joy on Sunday. This concluded and exorcised the demons of a season in hell for all indoor sports. This year without an audience has weakened the clubs and alienated supporters and practitioners. This victory for the Roses can only restore balm to the heart in a sector in suffering.

They won for themselves, of course, for their club, but also for all French handball, and for the cousins ​​of basketball and volleyball.

My only regret, this Monday morning, is that these European finals which transport us are not more visible on television.

At a time when French sport will seek to recover all the budding sportsmen lost during the health crisis, the European coronation of Nantes women is the best publicity, the best argument to bring young people back to the gymnasiums.

It opens up the field of possibilities, invites us to believe in it, celebrates the strength of a team and the emotions that sport offers.

What more ?

Nothing.

It only remains to say well done. "