France come to Tunisia as the second-best team on their continent, having taken silver at the YAC 16 EURO in Bulgaria last year.

At the Tunisia 2025 preliminary group draw, France were drawn against three teams from three different continent, in Brazil, Thailand and Tanzania, so all three of their initial games will be firsts for this generation of French ladies.

“Regarding the teams in our group, we do not have much information other than images from the South and Central American (SCAHC) championship that we were able to watch. We will therefore discover new game cultures to which we will have to adapt quickly,” said France coach Romain Capelle to ihf.info ahead of the championship.

“Our objective is clearly to get out of the group stages as best as possible to reach the quarter-finals and to be able to go for a podium finish.”

At the 2024 EURO in Varna, France lost just twice in their eight games on the way to silver. Preliminary group wins against Sweden (2-1), Czechia (2-0), Portugal (2-0) and Switzerland (2-1) came with a 2-1 loss to Spain in the middle, but impressive knock-out victories against Norway (2-0) in the quarter-finals and then Croatia in the semi-finals (2-0) signalled their intent.

However, the final saw them overpowered by the Dutch, with the Netherlands’ side taking a comfortable 2-0 (28:20, 19:14) continental final.

Nine of the 11 players used in Bulgaria have been named in France coach Romain Capelle’s squad of 14 for Tunisia, with Nina Bauvillard and Marie-Eve Holler not named. Additions to the squad include Stacy Goyat, Kenfack Kajio, Lou-an' Quero, Jeanne Pietra and Justine Venn.

In Bulgaria, Eloise Laborde top-scored with 103 points, followed by Elza Gori (79) and Alycia Sow (71), while Jade Cazabonne was crucial in goal, stopping 47 of the 153 shots she faced (30% save rate).

“Our team is made up of 90% of players who have played at the EURO 2024,” added Capelle. “We hope that the experience gained last year will give us confidence and allow us to better prepare for the start of this competition. We have a team of players from 2008 and 2009 capable of surprising and adapting to opposing teams.”

To prepare for Tunisia 2025, Capelle and his team were in Offenburg for a tri-nation camp, along with Switzerland and the host nation, Germany.

Despite two defeats against the German hosts in the ‘official’ matches, Capelle and his coaching team were satisfied with the work accomplished during the period, according to the French Handball Federation.

The camp is part of a long-term preparation period, both before and after Tunisia 2025, with an eye on the EURO U17 in Turkey next month. Following the world championship, the French team will prepare both at the Maison du Handball in France and in Alanya.

“Beach Handball is still quite recent in France; we started in 2016 with the intention to develop this great sport in all our French territories. We had to convince the federation, and our different lands about the assets of this discipline,” explained Eric Quintin, the National Technical Advisor for Beach Handball at the French Handball Federation, to ihf.info.

“Seeds have grown. Our first international medal has been won by our youth female team last summer and we wish a good following in Hammamet to feed the short time process. As well, our girls and our staff can improve by playing in this kind of event.”

At the last IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship, France finished sixth after losing to Argentina via shoot-out in the 5/6 placement match.

Earlier in the competition they had qualified through to the main round after a solitary preliminary group win, against Romania (2-1), in addition to defeats against Argentina (2-1) and Germany (2-0). The main round saw victories against Greece and Puerto Rico (2-0 both), plus a 2-0 defeat to Netherlands to make it to the last eight, where Hungary defeated them 2-0 in the quarter-finals. 

To set up their 5/6 placement match against Argentina, they defeated Tunisia 2025 opponents Brazil 2:1 (12:28, 26:16, SO 5:4) in the 5-8 placement round.

Coach: Romain Capelle
Key players: Eloise Laborde (Left Wing), Elza Gori (Left Wing), Alycia Sow (Specialist), Jade Cazabonne (Goalkeeper)
Qualification information: YAC 16 EURO 2024 - 2nd
History in tournament: 2017: DNQ, 2022: 6th
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group A – France (FRA), Brazil (BRA), Thailand (THA), Tanzania (TAN)