Find more calm waters, far from the upheavals of last season: this is the objective of the girls of Paris 92 who begin this September 3 against the Stella Saint-Maur their 25th season in a row in the elite of the French female hand.
Finalist of the French championship for the last time 10 years ago with the future Olympic champion and best player in the world, the Norwegian Stine oftedal, the club of the capital has entered the rank. Far behind the two Metz and Brest behemoths with which he cannot compete, Paris 92 wants to show “humility”. It is the key word of its return.
In a championship with the fragile economy, which loses a club every year due to bankruptcy, Paris 92 comes from a major crisis. At the end of last season, his former coach, the 2001 world champion with the Blues, Stéphane Plantin, left with losses and crash, more in agreement with his leaders or his players.
“There was a disagreement between the leaders and the players with the main coach. I was then asked to take over. It was a very difficult period with a very complicated end of the season ”says the one who is today the new coach, Naim Sarni.
He was the assistant of Plantin and before that for 5 years that of the previous coach, Yacine Messaoudi. He started his lease in the spring with a little treat anyway, a largely lost French Cup final against Metz (32-18). “We don’t want to reproduce this scheme today,” insists Naim Sarni. I want the team now to revolve around two values that are dear to me: work and humility. We missed this last quality last year ”. As a result, Paris 92 ended the season with a little enviable 8th place, one of the worst rankings in its history.
In the short term, do not talk about ambitious space to the new team that is set up. The club that plays in Issy-les-Moulineaux but displays the capital on its coat of arms is not PSG Hand. With a budget of € 2.1 million compared to € 8 million for Brest, it is not able to dominate the championship. In the French team, there is no longer a player stamped “Paris 92” since the departure of Méline Nocandy in Brest last year.
“I give myself objectives on a daily basis and it’s already not bad,” continues Naim Sarni. Regarding my vision until the end of the season is still too early. The workforce has been renewed to the third party, the group has widened with girls who offer us a new look and a new wealth. ”
It must all be put in place in a peaceful mind. Care, Paris 92 can again look up, towards a place in the European Cup and perhaps one day again compete in the title race. But not immediately.
