Handball: a ''new Ghibelline'' has landed in the Gard

Nîmes est une nouvelle étape dans la carrière de Yoann Gibelin. MIDI LIBRE – MIKAËL ANISSET

Arrivé du PSG cet été après une saison perturbée par une grosse blessure, l’arrière gauche de 24 ans de l'Usam Nîmes se veut serein et apaisé.

Yoann Gibelin, 24 years old (born in 1999), new left back for Usam Nîmes, was part of the “golden generation” French handball, among young people. This 1998 grand cru vintage, that of Villeminot, Prandi and Nahi (born in 1999), which traveled across Europe and the world from 2015 to 2019. Victorious at the European Youth Olympic Festival (Foje) in U17 , U18 European champion (silver in U20) and double U19 and U21 world champion!
At a time when Prandi and Nahi are at the Games with the Blues, eliminated this Wednesday in the quarter-final by Germany (35-34 after extra time), the Usamist recruit is 500 kilometers away, in Nevers (Nièvre), in pre-season training with the Green team.

Degouy : ''When Paris recruits a player, it’s because it’s a real profile& #39;'

Opposite trajectories. ''My career, I see it as it is, take note, voice and tone posed, Yoann Gibelin. I don't envy them, I'm really happy for them, they deserved their place. But everyone has their own story''
His, until then, was written in dotted lines. The fault, above all, of a nasty injury. This fracture of the left tibia, exactly one year ago, at the end of a training camp in Japan with Paris Saint-Germain, which kept him away from the field for many months.

''Yoann had already shown many good things at Créteil (2017-2022) but, unfortunately, he was unable to confirm in Paris because of injuries that slowed him down, observes the Nîmes coach, David Degouy. When Paris recruits a player, it's because he has a real profile. He's an intelligent boy, who knows perfectly the steps to get back to his best level. Today, he has to let go of the psychological reins. He has a bit of a handbrake on, that's normal.''

Seen in defense against Barça in the Champions League

The player who discovered handball in Bonneuil-sur-Marne, at 10 years old, arrives serene and calm in the Gard : ''I want to show that I've gotten over that, that I've managed to get back on the right track, that I've learned from everything that.''
Having passed through the Pôle espoirs d’Eaubonne then the Créteil training center (two years), the 1.98 meter, 99 kg full-back turned professional at 19. After three seasons in Starligue with the Val-de-Marne team, he made the big leap, in 2022, into another world, within the Qatari PSG.

''I take that as experience, he notes, thirty league matches during the first season and five “small&rdquo at the end of the 2023-2024 financial year. I learned a lot, on a daily basis, alongside the Karabatic brothers, Steins, goalkeepers Palicka and Green…''
Previewed at Coubertin, on certain defensive sequences, against Barcelona (22-30) in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, Gibelin, Nîmes until 2027, will bring all his experience.

In evolution perpetual

''Today, he goes through the stages of cardio, bodybuilding, handball, explains Degouy. I think he has all the qualities to succeed in Nîmes, to soak up our spirit of southerners from Gard. His integration will be all the easier with the Créteilian network, Boiba Sissoko and Dylan Soyez. Yoann, if he has stat sheets between 5 and 10 goals per match, everyone will love him, Parnasse and Nîmes included. At 24, he has time but he will have to work very hard every day.''
''I wouldn't say it's starting up again now, it's just continuity, concludes Yoann Gibelin. I see it as a perpetual evolution. We always try to be better after injuries. I want to continue and capitalize on what I have learned.''

Facing Pontault-Combault, an applied Usam

Training in Nevers until this Thursday, Usam played and won (35-23) its first friendly match on Wednesday against Pontault-Combault (Proligue), coached by former Nîmois Guillaume Saurina.
''In this match, I remember the total commitment of the players, in defense and attack, with the desire to move up the ball, coach David Degouy was satisfied. There is a big, big defensive commitment, an ability to adapt, to take initiatives in the offensive and defensive game and I found that very good.''
USAM: Pardin (4 saves), Soyez (4), Del Blanco (3). Poyet (3 goals), Gibelin (4), Konradsson (2), Vincent (7 dt 1 pen.), Mirt (1), Guigues (2), Gibernon (3), Chiron (5), Acquevillo (3), Varlet (2), Guironnet (2), Kaczor (1).

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