It’s the big return of Raphaëlle Tervel, this Wednesday evening, at the Palais des Sports in Besançon! For the 7th day of D1/Butagaz Energy Leaguein theESBF et Brest (8 p.m.). Three years after her departure, the former emblematic player and coach of the Bisontine handball players will face her favorite club for the very first time in her career.
Since this summer, Raphaëlle Tervel is at the helm of the impressive Brest armada : current undefeated co-leader of the championship and 2nd in their Champions League group. A Brest armada well steeped in Franche-Comté and ESBF this season…
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Four ex-ESBF members of the Brest staff
Raphaëlle Tervel has quite simply reconstituted, in Brest, all or almost all of her Bisontin staff between 2015 and 2021… With Sandrine Mariot, her complementary alter ego in the position of coach or even Fabien Vidal, the precious video analyst. “And there is Roland Motte too, for mental preparation. So that’s four in the staff and two players, it’s definitely a good part of the squad”. The two players: it’s Clarisse Mairot (left back / center half), currently 4th top scorer in the Champions League and who has also just celebrated her first official selections with the great French team, just a few weeks after leaving her training club ESBF. Brest: new home base also – for the second season, there – of Juliette Faure (half-center), whom Raphaëlle Tervel and Sandrine Mariot had recruited at the ESBF training center before launching her in D1. But be careful, this Bisontine imprint in Brest is anything but cronyism: “No, it’s just ultra-competent, each in their own field. Me, I know that I didn’t take friends, I want to win so I want the best! And I surrounded myself with those who, for me, are the best..
From a do-it-all coach in Besançon to the exceptional budget of Brest
Good old Franche-Comté acquaintances therefore, but much more substantial means in Brest which once again this season displays the exceptional budget of 8.650 million euros: almost double that of Metz, the three reigning French champions… And not far from four times more than the current budget of the ESBF, where in her time as Bisontine coach, Raphaëlle Tervel notably had to drive the minibuses herself and pay the hotel bills for away matches… “Ah, yes, it’s changed. Indeed, she smiles. But hey, it was nice too. It’s always good to know different things, it’s good training too. And the minibuses were still fair at the start of our career on the Besançon bench: in the end, it was over, so I think that there was still an evolution during our six seasons in Besançon But there, in Brest, it is certain that. we arrive in another world: yes, that’s clear”.
However, there is no question of denigrating his ESBF years. Still not the type of the house, explains Raphaëlle Tervel, the adopted Brestoise today: “No, no, on the contrary, it’s great to live both experiences! Because we loved the adventure in Besançon, with young people who we wanted to push as far as possible, where we wanted to do as much as possible big shots. So it was nice to have this somewhat outsider role and then, indeed in Brest, we find ourselves with a team where we have the other role, in any case, in the championship. , we have the role of the favorite and it’s nice also to play on this table” savors the Franc-Comtoise who signed a 3-year contract with Brest (until June 2027) to coach her international armada, made up in particular of another great recruit this season: the Russian Anna Vyakhireva (right back), considered as one of the best handball players in the world!
Opposed to her favorite club Besançon for the first time in her career
Raphaëlle Tervel still doesn’t speak the language, either, when we ask her what she feels when facing her favorite club this Wednesday evening. A great first in her professional career for the one who started at the ESBF in 1996 as a left winger, before becoming its captain until her first start in 2006. “Obviously, when you have spent a total of 16 and a half years of your life in Besançon, in this Palais des Sports, it is certain that the match will inevitably have a special flavor. After which, I don’t know. That It’s going to be completely new to be against Besançon and not with Besançon, after all these years, so we’ll see how it goes. In any case, it’s sure that it won’t be a match like any other! It’s clear. indeed, it is certain that we will want to come and win the three points with Brest, that is also clear The feelings, they will be before the match and after the match: during the match, there will be none. In any case”she concludes with a final smile.
For her partner Sandrine Mariot, this return to the Palais des Sports in Besançon under the colors of the opponent of her training and favorite club is not a first, however. It has already happened once: in May 2008, when she played in Vesoul, during the only season in D1 in the history of the Haut-Saône club.
