A bolt from the blue for the French volleyball championship, deserted by French internationals: the star of the Blues, double reigning Olympic champions, Earvin Ngapeth, signed on Thursday to everyone’s surprise with Poitiers, his favorite club, after 13 years spent abroad.
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The Stade Poitevin Volleyball itself seems unable to believe it. You are not dreaming… Earvin Ngapeth will be the 15th man in the colours of Alterna SPVB this season”, the club announced on its website.
The 33-year-old receiver-attacker, free since the end of May and the end of his contract with Halkbank Ankara, was presented with the rest of the team on Thursday evening, the black jersey bearing the number 86, the department of Vienne, according to a video broadcast by France Bleu Poitou.
” I have been abroad for more than ten years now. I am the father of three children, they are growing up, there is school” … he declared on the microphone of France Bleu Poitou.
He has signed for one season (the championship starts on September 18), but with an option in his contract to leave at the end of the year if he receives an attractive offer.
” I leave myself the possibility, if something happens, to leave at the end of December. What is 100% certain is that the whole first half of the season, I will be there. »he explained to France Bleu Poitou.
The star of the French team, who won an incredible second place in Paris on August 10,Olympic gold medal three years in a row after Tokyo, joins a club that was only 11th in the last regular season and absent from the play-offs since 2021.
” A little taste of unfinished business »
But this club is the one in his heart city, where his mother still lives and where he made his first smashes and his first cuffs. In the wake of his father Eric (who as coach gave the SPVB its first championship title, in 1999), before leaving for the national center of Montpellier, then starting as a professional in Tours in 2008.
Three years later, he left the French championship for a 13-year career in the biggest foreign clubs (Modena, Kazan in particular).
” I grew up in this room, with this team, in this city. My first great volleyball emotions were here. There was a little taste of unfinished business, I had not yet worn this jersey. I knew it would happen, but not this quickly. »explained Ngapeth to France Bleu Poitou.
His return puts the spotlight on the Poitiers club, but also on the French championship, deserted by the top French internationals due to lack of resources: the central Nicolas Le Goff, who plays for Montpellier, was until now the only Blue among the Paris medallists to play in Ligue A in the coming season.
He will therefore be joined by the most illustrious of them, crowned best player of the Olympic tournament in 2021 and then 2024. Stade Poitevin will play its first match of the season on September 28 at home against Narbonne.