Portes: “I’ve got high hopes for these players”

In the second week of June 2013, the French Handball Federation (FFHB) announced the end of an era within its women’s national team.

After being at the helm of the women’s national team for 15 years, leading them to the World Championship crown in 2003, three world silver medals in 1999, 2009 and 2011 as well two EHF EURO bronze medals in 2002 and 2006, Olivier Krumbholz was succeeded by Alain Portes.

51-year-old Portes played his first international for France in 1983. Another 215 followed in which he scored 501 goals in total and won bronze at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.

From 1995 to 2004 he coached the HBC Nimes women’s team. Since 2009 he has been responsible for Tunisia’s men’s national team.

eurohandball.com had the opportunity to talk to him shortly after taking on his new posting.

eurohandball.com: How long have you been in touch with the French Handball Federation?

Alain Portes: I can't really answer this question. The context of Olivier (Krumbholz) leaving is quite painful, and I don't want to talk about it too much.

All I can say is that it's been a long time since the federation and I had the desire to work together. I'd say it's been four years, but there have not been any talks about me training the team until quite recently.

eurohandball.com: Has the national federation already set some targets for you to achieve?

Alain Portes: Well, Philippe Bana (the FFHB national technical director) has set the bar quite high, I must admit.

It might be a little too early to talk about Olympic podiums or things like that.

He's also insisted on the dynamics we can create, and the image we reflect when this squad plays handball together. We want it to be happy and give a good image to the public.

I've got high hopes for these player and I know they're ambitious, too. But until now, I've only seen them play on TV, and I'll have to wait until I train them for real to see what are their strengths and weak points.

To say that we could beat Norway or Denmark right now would be wrong, based on the last matches of the French selection, but we've got to get better.

eurohandball.com: You've got the first two EHF EURO 2014 qualification matches coming up in October. How are you going to proceed to select your squad?

Alain Portes: I think we will take the group that Olivier has put together and maybe change a thing or two.

Olivier is a very clever guy. He took all the best players and turned them into a well-working team. We'd be silly not to use this strength.

Maybe we'll change a couple of players, I don't know. I really want to improve our attacking game, because I think that is the team's weakest point, and has been for some time now.

Photos: Stephane Pillaud / sportissimo