France men's national handball team

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 scored 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 won 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 semi-final, 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. By doing so, they became the first team in the history of the sport to hold the three major titles for the second time.

In 2016, Les Experts lost their Olympic title in Rio, finishing second after a defeat in final against Denmark.

In 2017, they won their 6th World Champion title at home against Norway (33–26). Nikola Karabatic was elected Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Thierry Omeyer and Daniel Narcisse retired after the tournament, with two Olympic gold medals, three European titles, and respectively five and four world championship titles.

Olympic Games

• Gold Medal: 2008, 2012
• Silver Medal: 2016
• Bronze Medal: 1992

World Championship

• Winners: 1995, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017
• Runners-up: 1993
• Third-place: 1997, 2003, 2005, 2019

European Championship

• Winners: 2006, 2010, 2014
• Third-place: 2008, 2018

Competition				Total
Olympic Games	2	1	1	4
World Championship	6	1	4	11
European Championship	3	0	2	5
Total	11	2	7	20

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  

Olympic Games

Games	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936 Berlin	Did not participate
1972 Munich	Did not qualify
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona	Third place	3rd of 12	7	5	0	2	157	143	+14
1996 Atlanta	Fourth place	4th of 12	7	4	0	3	190	165	+25
2000 Sydney	Match for 5th place	6th of 12	8	4	1	3	192	182	+10
2004 Athens	Match for 5th place	5th of 12	8	7	0	1	221	176	+45
2008 Beijing	Champions	1st of 12	8	7	1	0	228	185	+43
2012 London	Champions	1st of 12	8	7	0	1	229	175	+54
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Runners-up	2nd of 12	8	6	0	2	241	201	+40
2020 Tokyo	TBD
Total	7/14	2 Titles	54	40	2	12	1,458	1,227	+231

World Championship

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1938	Did not qualify
1954	Preliminary Round	6	3	0	1	2	26	61
1958	Preliminary Round	9	3	1	0	2	66	57
1961	Main Round	8	6	1	0	5	42	73
1964	Preliminary Round	14	3	0	0	3	41	64
1967	Preliminary Round	10	3	1	0	2	34	41
1970	Preliminary Round	11	6	1	0	5	80	105
1974	Did not qualify
1978	Preliminary Round	16	3	0	0	3	54	97
1982	Did not qualify
1986	Did not qualify
1990	Second round	9	6	2	1	3	138	138
1993	Runners-up		6	4	0	2	134	131
1995	Champions		9	7	0	2	218	185
1997	Third place		9	7	0	2	223	206
1999	Quarter-finals	6	9	6	0	3	242	211
2001	Champions		9	9	0	0	233	172
2003	Third place		10	8	0	2	286	218
2005	Third place		10	6	2	2	301	240
2007	Fourth place	4	10	6	0	4	300	243
2009	Champions		10	9	0	1	296	211
2011	Champions		10	9	1	0	327	245
2013	Quarter-finals	6	7	5	0	2	207	182
2015	Champions		9	8	1	0	259	215
2017	Champions		9	9	0	0	282	218
/ 2019	Third place		10	7	1	2	278	251
2021	Fourth place	4	9	7	0	2	267	250
/ 2023	TBD
// 2025
2027
Total	25/28	6 titles	169	113	6*	50	4334	3814

European Championship

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1994	5th/6th place	6	5	2	1	2	123	120
1996	7th/8th place	7	5	3	0	2	130	120
1998	7th/8th place	7	5	1	1	3	110	125
2000	Fourth place	4	7	4	1	2	173	164
2002	5th/6th place	6	6	3	2	1	152	136
2004	5th/6th place	6	6	3	0	3	163	154
2006	Champions	1	8	7	0	1	243	192
2008	Third place	3	8	6	0	2	231	207
2010	Champions	1	8	6	2	0	225	196
2012	Main round	11	6	2	1	3	156	163
2014	Champions	1	8	7	0	1	259	227
2016	5th/6th place	5	7	5	0	2	210	182
2018	Third place	3	8	7	0	1	244	212
2020	Preliminary round	14	3	1	0	2	82	79
2022	To be determined
2024
Total	14/16	3 titles	90	57	8*	25	2501	2277

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided in a penalty shootout.

Squad for the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship.[1][2]

Head coach: Guillaume Gille

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 2 RW Yanis Lenne (1996-06-29) 29 June 1996 1.88 m 16 17 Montpellier Handball 5 RB Nedim Remili (1995-07-18) 18 July 1995 1.95 m 69 216 Paris Saint-Germain 7 CB Romain Lagarde (1997-03-05) 5 March 1997 1.94 m 39 52 Rhein-Neckar Löwen 9 CB Melvyn Richardson (1997-01-30) 30 January 1997 1.90 m 22 47 Montpellier Handball 10 RB Dika Mem (1997-08-31) 31 August 1997 1.94 m 52 133 Barça 11 P Nicolas Tournat (1994-04-05) 5 April 1994 2.00 m 31 29 Łomża Vive Kielce 12 GK Vincent Gérard (1986-12-16) 16 December 1986 1.89 m 97 14 Paris Saint-Germain 14 CB Kentin Mahé (1991-05-22) 22 May 1991 1.86 m 107 354 Telekom Veszprém 16 GK Yann Genty (1981-12-26) 26 December 1981 1.85 m 6 0 Paris Saint-Germain 17 LB Timothey N'Guessan (1992-09-18) 18 September 1992 1.96 m 78 145 Barça 19 RW Luc Abalo (1984-09-06) 6 September 1984 1.83 m 262 805 Elverum Håndball 21 LW Michaël Guigou (1982-01-28) 28 January 1982 1.80 m 283 970 USAM Nîmes Gard 22 P Luka Karabatić (1988-04-19) 19 April 1988 2.02 m 103 120 Paris Saint-Germain 23 P Ludovic Fabregas (1996-07-01) 1 July 1996 1.98 m 72 131 Barça 24 GK Wesley Pardin (1990-01-01) 1 January 1990 1.95 m 17 0 Pays d’Aix UC 25 LW Hugo Descat (1992-08-16) 16 August 1992 1.83 m 2 0 Montpellier Handball 26 CB Nicolas Claire (1987-07-10) 10 July 1987 1.90 m 45 45 Pays d’Aix UC 27 RB Adrien Dipanda (1988-05-03) 3 May 1988 2.02 m 77 91 Saint-Raphaël Var Handball 28 RW Valentin Porte (1990-09-07) 7 September 1990 1.90 m 108 313 Montpellier Handball 37 LB Jean-Jacques Acquevillo (1989-01-17) 17 January 1989 1.95 m 2 7 USAM Nîmes Gard 92 GK Remi Desbonnet (1992-02-28) 28 February 1992 1.82 m 0 0 USAM Nîmes Gard

• 
  Jackson Richardson is the most capped player in the history of France with 417 caps.
• 
  Jérôme Fernandez is the top scorer in the history of France with 1,463 goals.
• 
  Nikola Karabatić is the most capped and top scorer among active players with 313 caps and 1,210 goals.

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

France's matches are currently televised by beIN Sports since 2015.

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• IHF profile