Not only is Nicolas Desbonnet playing for the France national team, but he also set up a team, “Les Requins Affamés” - “the Hungry Sharks” - to play the ebt tournaments in the summer. Last season, while they did not make it to the final, they still won a stage in Lacanau as well as finishing third on the Corsica leg of the tour. “This team is basically a bunch of friends as well as some players from the France national team,” he explains, before mentioning that his younger brother Sébastien is also part of the fun, “He started playing with us on the beach and now he is playing with the national team as well. It’s great to represent your country and play sports at high-level, but it’s even better if you can share those moments with your family.”
While you might think that having a brother in the spotlight will make the other beach handball player in the Desbonnet family jealous, quite the opposite is actually happening. Nicolas is - in Sébastian's own words, “a pioneer in French beach handball,” and he has been following his brother’s performances very closely lately.
Right now, beach-handball is at the centre of interest in many federations, and France is no different. Despite finishing thirteenth at the last EHF EURO in 2023, Sébastien Desbonnet wants to believe that the future is bright for his national team; “Some nations, like Croatia or Hungary, started their project well ahead of ours, and they are still much more developed than we are. But we are definitely making giant steps.” While his team Les Requins Affamés will still be making appearances on the ebt tour next summer, Nicolas Desbonnet will keep on making a new for himself on the beach handball circuit.
