A glance at the French squad selected for Euro 2023 volleyball is enough to measure the extent of the phenomenon: six of the fourteen players selected, i.e. almost half of the French team, play in the Polish championship, the PlusLiga. And two of its leaders, the passer Antoine Brizard and the central Barthélémy Chinenyeze, have also passed through this country, a stronghold of volleyball, in the same way as Italy. The Blues make their debut on Wednesday August 30, at 4 p.m., against Turkey (12e world nation), in Israel. The competition (August 28-September 16) is also held in Italy, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Initially, Ukraine was also to be one of the host countries.
Most of these expatriates are part of the tricolor executives, such as captain Benjamin Toniutti, the sharp Stephen Boyer or the receiver-attacker Trévor Clévenot. The three men were crowned champions of Poland this year with Jastrzebski Wegiel, a club from the town of Jastrzebie Zdroj, in Silesia.
They even came close to the perfect season but were beaten in the Champions League, in an unprecedented 100% Polish final, against Zaksa, in the tie-break. The formation of Kedzierzyn-Kozle, in Upper Silesia, which ended, in 2021, twelve years of hegemony of Russian and Italian clubs over the prestigious competition, had offered itself its third rank crown on this occasion.
Yacine Louati has just left Fenerbahçe for Belchatow. In this small town located near Lodz, in the center of the country, the receiver-attacker of the Blues will find a known face, that of the libero Benjamin Diez, recent winner of the French championship with Tours, but not selected for this Euro. They will have the difficult task of reviving an institution – the Yellow and Blacks have been champions of Poland nine times, a record – which almost disappeared last season, weakened by the delusions of grandeur of its former president.
The gratin of world volleyball
The formation owes its survival only to its sponsor, the powerful PGE group, the Polish equivalent of EDF. The town of Belachow is home to one of the most polluting coal-fired power stations in Europe. In a country that produces more than three quarters of its electricity from this fuel, the prosperity of clubs is closely linked to that of coal. Owned by cities and local authorities, the clubs are financed by powerful sponsors from the energy sector. Money is flowing in Polish volleyball. “With Turkey, it is the country that pays the best”summarizes Yacine Louati.
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