“To obey blindly, I can’t do it anymore”: at 37, former Montpellier Vincent Gérard will end his career

Vincent Gérard a notamment remporté la Ligue des champions avec le MHB en 2018. Midi Libre – DIMOU ALEXANDRE

Le gardien de l'équipe de France de handball et de Kiel, ancien du Montpellier Handball, Vincent Gérard va mettre fin à sa carrière professionnelle, a-t-il annoncé ce mercredi 20 décembre.

He was one of the players who left no one indifferent, whether they loved him or hated him. By his character and his "big mouth" as he himself admits, but also his performances. But at 37, Vincent Gérard has decided to stop his career as a professional handball player at the end of this season, as he announced on Instagram and during a great talk to our colleagues from L'Equipe.

"I always told myself that when the negatives outweighed the positives, it would be time to stop. Too many things bother me, prevent me from having fun. These are the coaches' instructions that I don't understand, the orders that I no longer necessarily want to follow, he explained to the sports daily.

"I don'I don'want to come across as an old fart who does as he pleases,'he continues. I understand people who want make these efforts. Now, I no longer want it, To obey blindly, I can no longer do it."

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European Champion with Montpellier in 2018

A native of Woippy in Moselle, Vincent Gérard began his professional career at Montpellier Handball in 2006. Then left for Istres then Dunkirk, where he won a Coupe de France and a Coupe de la Ligue, the goalkeeper returns to Hérault for four years.

Meanwhile, the man with 150 caps for the French team will be part of the team for the Coupe de France-Coupe de la Ligue double in 2016. Above all, Gérard will be one of the great architects of MHB's victory in the Champions League in 2018, the club's second continental coronation after 2003. 

The Paris Olympic Games in sight

Player of Paris SG from 2019 to 2022, where he was crowned champion of France but not of Europe, then Saint-Raphaël, he is currently a player for THW Kiel in Germany. However, he did not play a single match due to an adductor injury contracted during summer preparation. 

However, the Mosellan hopes to be part of the French team which will compete in the Euro next January and the Olympic Games in July. "If the coach considers that I have the level, that I can bring. I'm not going to go there and not be good and get hit. I take it in the sense: am I capable of bringing something to this team ?", am he still moving forward with the team.

"When I was in Montpellier, Charles Bolzinger was training with the under-13s"

Although he has not played a single match with Kiel, Vincent Gérard is part of the group called by the coach of the France team Guillaume Gille to prepare for the next Euro in Germany. "I no longer have pain, I train every day. “I'm physically better than I've been in the last five years,” he informs. 

But the competition will be tough for the goalkeeper position, with three other Montpellier residents in the equation. His replacement in Germany and native of Hérault Samir Bellahcene has had an excellent first part of the season, as have those from Montpellier Handball, Charles Bolzinger and Rémi Desbonnet.

"The three are friends, I saw them grow up, remembers Vincent Gérard. When I was in Montpellier, Charles Bolzinger was training with the under-13s, Rémis Desbonnet was very small but he is still very small. Samir Bellahcene also hung out when I was there. I also know that the Olympics are a special competition that can be approached differently. It's in six months, we'll see. The only thing is to say to yourself: if I can bring it, it will be with pleasure. I never hid."