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France men's national handball team

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France
Shirt badge/Association crest
Information
Nickname1992: les « Bronzés »
1993–1996: les « Barjots »
2001–2008: les « Costauds »
2008–: les « Experts »
AssociationFrench Handball Federation
CoachDidier Dinart
Most capsJackson Richardson (417)
Most goalsJérôme Fernandez (1452)
Colours
Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
1st
Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
2nd
Results
Summer Olympics
Appearances6 (First in 1992)
Best result1st (2008, 2012)
World Championship
Appearances20 (First in 1954)
Best result1st (1995, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2015)
European Championship
Appearances12 (First in 1994)
Best result1st (2006, 2010, 2014)
Last updated on Unknown.
France men's national handball team
Medal record
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing Team
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Team
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Barcelona Team
World Championship
Gold medal – first place 1995 Iceland
Gold medal – first place 2001 France
Gold medal – first place 2009 Croatia
Gold medal – first place 2011 Sweden
Gold medal – first place 2015 Qatar
Silver medal – second place 1993 Sweden
Bronze medal – third place 1997 Japan
Bronze medal – third place 2003 Portugal
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Tunisia
European Championship
Gold medal – first place 2006 Switzerland
Gold medal – first place 2010 Austria
Gold medal – first place 2014 Denmark
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Norway

France national handball team is the handball team, supervised by the French Handball Federation, that represents France in international matches. It is the first handball team to have held all three titles twice (the Danish women's team also held all three in 1997), and the only national team in its sport to hold five world titles. France's men handball team is widely regarded as the finest national team in the history of the sport and are as of August 2016, the defending World Champions.

Results at international tournaments

Since the 1990s, France has emerged as a major handball team. France won the bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, giving birth to their first nickname: les Bronzés (meaning tanned in French, a reference both to bronze and to cult French film Les Bronzés). This led to an increased popularity of the sport in France, which was already one of the most popular in primary and secondary schools.

One year after their Olympic medal, les Bronzés reached the final of the 1993 World Championship, which they lost against Russia.

In 1995, France won the World Championship in Iceland, defeating Croatia in the final. The team became known as les Barjots because the players played the final with an extravagant haircut (barjot is a slang word for crazy in French).

The team finished 4th in the 1996 Summer Olympics (France lost the bronze medal game to Spain, whom they had beaten in the first round). France finished third a year later in the 1997 World Championship. The team finished 6th in the 1999 World Championship and in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

France won the world title again in the 2001 World Championship organised in France. During both their quarterfinal and final, against Germany and Sweden respectively, they were one goal behind until a few seconds before the end of the game, but managed to score a late goal and finally win in overtime with a three-goal margin. This great strength of character was cause for their new nickname: les Costauds (the strong, or the tough). Five members of les Costauds had already been world champions in 1995 with les Barjots: Jackson Richardson, Grégory Anquetil, Patrick Cazal, and the goalkeepers Bruno Martini and Christian Gaudin.

The team finished third in the 2003 World Championship. In the 2004 Olympics, the teamed finished 5th. Although they won their five games of the preliminary round, the team went down to an ageing Russian team led by 42-year-old goalkeeper Andrey Lavrov in the quarterfinals (24–26).

In the 2005 World Championship, France finished third again. This was the last international competition played by Jackson Richardson, a veteran from the first team les Bronzés. The retirement of their star meant for the French team the final transition between the early successes and the new generation of players.

In 2006 France won for the first time the European Championship, a competition in which they had never managed to win a medal until then. In the final they overwhelmed Spain, the reigning world champions (31–23), against whom they had lost the opening match in the preliminary round.

In 2008, France finished third in the European Championship. They were undefeated until the semifinal, which they lost to Croatia.

France won the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. The French players elected to call themselves Les Experts, which is the French title for the TV show CSI in France. The team won the gold medal in the 2008 handball tournament in Beijing, defeating underdogs Iceland in the final (28–23). Thierry Omeyer, Daniel Narcisse and Bertrand Gille were voted into the tournament's All Star team.

France won the world title again in 2009 at the 2009 World Championship, hosted by Croatia, against the organizing country, and the European title in 2010 in Austria, once more against Croatia. As a result, they became the first men's team to hold the three major titles in the sport (olympic title, world title and European title) simultaneously (Denmark women's national handball team held all three titles in 1997). It also became the third team to have won all three titles ever, the other two being Germany and Russia.

In the 2011 World Championship, France held its title, winning against Denmark (37–35 after extra time). This victory, in addition to granting an automatic participation to the 2012 Olympics, marked several achievements:

  • it became, with Romania (1964, 1974) and Sweden (1958), one of the few handball teams (on the men's side) to have successfully defended a world champion status;
  • it became (and is the only, so far) the only national handball team in history to have won four major titles in a row;
  • three players on the team (Jérôme Fernandez, Thierry Omeyer and Didier Dinart) achieved three world champions titles – putting them on par with Cornel Oţelea from Romania in the 60s (had he been present in 2009, Bertrand Gille would also have been one of them, but he missed 2009 due to injuries).

The 2012 and 2013 years were a mixed bag for the team; after an unexpected setback at the 2012 European championship where the team ended up in 11th place, it went on to be the first national handball team to retain the olympic title at the London Olympic games. In 2013, they ended up being defeated by Croatia in this year's world championship.

2014 saw France regain its European title after losing it in 2012. Of note is that just like in 2009, the team ended up winning the final against the host country.

In 2015, they won their 5th World Champion title against host country Qatar. Thierry Omeyer was elected Most Valuable Player of the tournament; this was the first time in the IHF history that a goalkeeper was elected as an MVP.

Honours

Olympic Games
World Championship
European Championship

Competitive record

  Champions    Runners-up    Third Place    Fourth Place  

Olympic Games

Games Round Position Pld W D L GF GA GD
West Germany 1972 Munich Did not qualify
Canada 1976 Montreal
Soviet Union 1980 Moscow
United States 1984 Los Angeles
South Korea 1988 Seoul
Spain 1992 Barcelona Third Place 3rd of 12 7 5 0 2 157 143 +14
United States 1996 Atlanta Fourth Place 4th of 12 7 4 0 3 190 165 +25
Australia 2000 Sydney Match for 5th place 6th of 12 8 4 1 3 192 182 +10
Greece 2004 Athens Match for 5th place 5th of 12 8 7 0 1 221 176 +45
China 2008 Beijing Champions 1st of 12 8 7 1 0 228 185 +43
United Kingdom 2012 London Champions 1st of 12 8 7 0 1 229 175 +54
Brazil 2016 Rio de Janeiro Runners-up 2nd of 12 8 6 0 2 241 201 +40
Total 7/12 2 Titles 54 40 2 12 1,458 1,227 +231

World Championship

Year Round Position GP W D L GS GA
Germany 1938 Did not qualify
Sweden 1954 Preliminary Round 6 3 0 1 2 26 61
East Germany 1958 Preliminary Round 9 3 1 0 2 66 57
West Germany 1961 Main Round 8 6 1 0 5 42 73
Czech Republic 1964 Preliminary Round 14 3 0 0 3 41 64
Sweden 1967 Preliminary Round 10 3 1 0 2 34 41
France 1970 Preliminary Round 11 6 1 0 5 80 105
East Germany 1974 Did not qualify
Denmark 1978 Preliminary Round 16 3 0 0 3 54 97
West Germany 1982 Did not qualify
Switzerland 1986 Did not qualify
Czech Republic 1990 Second round 9 6 2 1 3 138 138
Sweden 1993 Runners-up 6 4 0 2 134 131
Iceland 1995 Champions 9 7 0 2 218 185
Japan 1997 Third Place 9 7 0 2 223 206
Egypt 1999 Quarter-finals 6 9 6 0 3 242 211
France 2001 Champions 9 9 0 0 233 172
Portugal 2003 Third Place 10 8 0 2 286 218
Tunisia 2005 Third Place 10 6 2 2 301 240
Germany 2007 Fourth Place 4 10 6 0 4 300 243
Croatia 2009 Champions 10 9 0 1 296 211
Sweden 2011 Champions 10 9 0 1 327 245
Spain 2013 Quarterfinals 6 7 5 0 2 207 182
Qatar 2015 Champions 9 8 1 0 259 215
France 2017 Qualified
Total 21/25 5 titles 141 90 5* 46 3507 3095
*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided in a penalty shootout.

European Championship

Year Round Position GP W D L GS GA
Portugal 1994 5th/6th place 6 5 2 1 2 123 120
Spain 1996 7th/8th place 7 5 3 0 2 130 120
Italy 1998 7th/8th place 7 5 1 1 3 110 125
Croatia 2000 Fourth place 4 7 4 1 2 173 164
Sweden 2002 5th/6th place 6 6 3 2 1 152 136
Slovenia 2004 5th/6th place 6 6 3 0 3 163 154
Switzerland 2006 Champions 1 8 7 0 1 243 192
Norway 2008 Third Place 3 8 6 0 2 231 207
Austria 2010 Champions 1 8 6 2 0 225 196
Serbia 2012 Main round 11 6 2 1 3 156 163
Denmark 2014 Champions 1 8 7 0 1 259 227
Poland 2016 5th/6th place 5 7 5 0 2 210 182
Total 12/12 3 titles 79 49 8* 22 2175 1986
*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided in a penalty shootout.

Team

Current squad

Template:2016 Summer Olympics France men's handball team roster

2008 Olympic squad

Gold medalists France collect their medals on 24 August 2008 in Beijing
Coaches

Kit suppliers

Since 2002, France's kit is supplied by Adidas.

Media Coverage

France's matches are currently televised by Canal+ which will last until 2017.

References

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