With his alter Ego Nedim Remili, he is the conductor of the Blues, who face Sweden on Friday at 9 p.m. in Stockholm, in the semi-finals of the world championships.
by Jérôme Porier (Stockholm, Special Envoy)
What if the secret of the French handball team was due to the humility of its leaders? With 30 goals scored since the start of the World Cup, which takes place in Poland and Sweden, Kentin Mahé is the best marker of the Blues in this competition. Discreet and modest, he emphasizes that half of his goals were scored on 7 meters, while neither Nicolas Tournat (26 goals) nor Nedim Remili (25 goals) draw a penalty.
Friday January 27 from 9 p.m., the Habs will need its effectiveness in front of the goal to reach the final. In the TELE2 Arena de Stockholm, a bubbling pregnant with 19,000 places entirely acquired by the cause of the national team, they will find on their way Andreas Palickka, the goalkeeper of Paris-Saint-Germain, one of the best on the planet. A year ago, in the semi-finals of Euro 2022, the latter had released a breathtaking match (12 stops), disgusting French attackers.
German education
At 31 years old, Kentin Mahé is now one of the alumni of the French team, with whom he won everything, or almost. Twice world champion (in 2015 and 2017), gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, he has never won the Euro before. He nevertheless finished third in the 2018 edition in Croatia. The same year, he also won the title of German champion with the SG Flensburg-Handewitt, his club of the time.
The first thing that strikes in the half-center of the Blues is his humility, anything but pretended. “In Germany, the collective always comes before individuals, while in France players are more individually prepared to approach the high level,” he explains.
If Kentin Mahé grew up across the Rhine, it is because Pascal, his father, robust defender, bronze medalist at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and world champion with the famous “Barjots” in 1995, finished His career in Dormagen, on the left bank of the Rhine, between Cologne and Düsseldorf. Unique for a French handballer, Pascal Mahé even became, between 1999 and 2013, the coach of the TSV Bayer Dormagen team, before returning to France. For four years, the “little” Kentin was therefore one of the young people placed under the responsibility of his father.
“Coming from an environment that was not at all sporty, my father had to fight to forge a name. Me, the name, I had it from the start, but I had to fight To impose myself, tells Kentin Mahé. My father shuffled me a lot. Humor, he taught me always questioning me, being ready to face unforeseen Level. He transmitted the values of handball to me: humility, the taste for work, effort … From an early age, I had only one thing in mind: the hand! “
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