Tunisian eyes on Jallouz

Never before has a player from Africa or Asia been part of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 since its implementation in 2010. This season we almost had both continents represented for the first time. However, an injury to Veszprem’s Iranian back court player Imam Jamali means that Asia is out. Meanwhile, Africa will see its first player represented in Cologne, as Wael Jallouz is set for his very first VELUX EHF FINAL4 tournament with THW Kiel.

Wallouz first came to Kiel’s attention in Doha two years ago, and the last twelve months has changed his life completely. The 23-year-old Tunisian, who played for his home club Hammamet since his youth, was on loan to Saudi club team Mudhar at the 2012 IHF Super Globe in Doha.

During this tournament, his team faced the three-time EHF Champions League winner THW Kiel and THW coach Alfred Gislason was impressed by the jump shooting of the Tunisian left back, who had been bronze medallist at the 2011 Junior World Championship in Greece.

The negotiations already started in Doha, and only weeks later Wael Jallouz was confirmed as the first African player to join THW.

In summer 2013 Jallouz, nicknamed “Willy” by the German fans, arrived in Kiel to start a new life, to learn, to improve and to reach out for more.

It only took him some matches, before he was the crowd favourite at the Sparkassenarena. In his first season Jallouz was taught a lot by coach Alfred Gislason, despite arriving with an array of incredible skills thanks to Tunisian national team coach Sead Hasanefendic.

It was not only an individual improvement for Jallouz in Kiel, no, despite his young age the left back already is one of the key figures in the Tunisian squad. His personal highlight to date was qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Tunisia became the only non-European quarter-finalist.

But now, Cologne is waiting and Jallouz is anticipating the event immensely

“I have only heard great things about the FINAL4, and I watched the matches from Cologne at home in Tunisia on TV. It must be brilliant to play in front of an audience of 20,000 and it feels brilliant that I will be part of this experience.”

It took “Willy” some months to acclimatise to the German Bundesliga and the VELUX EHF Champions League, arriving from a club with clearly lower intensity in all competitions, but now he is sure that he took the right step.

“I absolutely like it in Kiel. The whole club, including the fans, is a great big family. The atmosphere in our team is great. I was easily integrated, so from my opinion my new chapter of life is absolutely perfect.”

This weekend all Tunisian eyes will be on the first African player to be part of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, as the matches are broadcasted live: “There’s a huge public and media interest in handball in general in Tunisia, and now of course also in the FINAL4.

“Everyone follows the Tunisian players via TV. So they can see a lot of my matches. I know that my family at home watches every match, and a lot of friends and colleagues join them. So I usually got a huge and positive feedback from Tunisia after my matches – hopefully it will not change after the VELUX EHF FINAL4,” concludes Jallouz.