Nicolas Batum, captain of the French basketball team, Olympic vice-champion in Tokyo eight months ago, is giving up participating in Euro-2022 in September in Germany, he announced on Friday in an interview with the media specializing in First Team basketball.
Nando de Colo (34) announced two and a half weeks ago in the columns of L’Equipe that he would not participate in the European Championship in Germany (Cologne for the 1st round, Berlin for the final phase).
“This year, I struggled physically”
“It will be the same for me,” Nicolas Batum told First Team. “I think Nando and I are grandpas there,” added Nicolas Batum, 33 and 155 caps with the Blues.
“This year, I struggled physically and I know that there is a huge season ahead of me with the Clippers next year, because we are going to play to get to the end. It may be my only chance where I have the opportunity to be able to do that, ”he said.
“I spoke with Nicolas last Sunday,” reacted the coach of the Blues, Vincent Collet, in a press release published on the site of the French Federation.
“He told me of his thoughts on a possible absence from the Euro. For family and physical reasons. This decision was not final. I asked him to hold on and we were to talk about it again next week. I found his ad today. I take note of this information, ”explained the coach.
“Batman”, Batum’s nickname in the France team, has participated in all international competitions since 2009, with the exception of the last Euro in 2017, where the French stopped in the round of 16.
He thus won gold at Euro-2013, silver at the Tokyo Olympics and Euro-2011, and bronze at the Worlds-2014 and 2019, and at Euro-2009, which made the player with the most medals in the history of the Blues.
The summer promises to be busy for the French basketball team, with two qualifying windows for the World Cup-2023 in early July and late August, and Euro-2022 in Germany from September 1 to 18.