A surprise of the summer on the volleyball world, the arrival of Earvin Ngapeth in Poitiers, his favorite club, is already having significant consequences on the local fabric. The season has only just begun, and so does Earvin Ngapeth.
In memory, we have never seen so many journalists attend training at the Frédéric Lawson-Body hall. The Poitevins will have to do without the banality this season, the extraordinary will have to get used to it. Because with the arrival of Earvin Ngapeth, superstar of the French volleyball team and one of the best players in the world, nothing will ever be the same again. “It’s not a wave that we’re catching, it’s a tsunami,” summarizes Cédric Enard, manager of the Alterna Stade Poitevin volleyball team. The former assistant coach of the France team is the main architect of the arrival of the double Olympic champion.
“With Earvin, we had been talking for 5-6 years about the possibility that he could come and work at the club at the end of his career. And this summer, he told me that he was in Poitiers until December and m ‘asked if we had a small place for him in the squad and then I told him: ‘Be careful if you’re talking seriously I’m activating everything you need to activate’ and he told me ‘Banco’. . “After the Games I was without a club and I needed a quiet season,” explains Earvin Ngapeth. “I had opportunities in exotic championships but the seasons start again in January so I wrote to Cédric and all the planets aligned for me to come and play.”
Immediate repercussions
The child prodigy’s return home was sealed in the greatest secrecy. The players and the majority of club employees were only told on the day of the official announcement to keep the surprise effect for the club’s presentation evening. “Our salesperson, for example, was informed only a few hours before,” says Cédric Enard. “He said to me, ‘Are you kidding?’ I told him, ‘No, go see Earvin in the gym, he’s training with the team.’
The evening of the team presentation, the surprise was total and the repercussions of the arrival of a volleyball juggernaut were immediate. Frédéric Bouvier, president of Alterna Energies, naming the club, remembers the hours following the presentation: “The evening of the officialization we received dozens of calls from companies wanting to make an appointment with the club. These were partners who wanted to give more money but also companies who were doubtful about our project who decided to take the plunge. In terms of ticketing, we will have full houses for all home matches and Poitiers will fill all the halls. France on each trip. It forces the club to rethink its operation to manage the flow of tickets and visibility. The arrival of Ngapeth is a financial effort but it is a great return on investment and I think it is already there. reached.”
Gone to stay?
For Earvin Ngapeth, playing for the club of his heart and his “first great emotions” was an obligatory step in his career. For passion, obviously for proximity to loved ones, too. “I’ve been playing abroad for 13 years so it’s great, there are big contracts and great teams but there’s nothing better than being close to your family. It’s always nicer to train and then go eat at mom’s.” In Poitiers, Earvin Ngapeth wants to bring his experience to young people and bring the club back to where he knew it as a child, in the upper echelons of the French championship: “It’s a historic place for French volleyball,” explains Earvin Ngapeth. “There is not much missing to restructure the club and revive this room. I want to be part of this project. I want young people to know the Lawson-Body room as I knew it as a child by filling the gymnasium every day. weekends. At the time, other teams were afraid to come and play in Poitiers.”
But for Ngapeth, time is running out. Under contract until June 2025, it is difficult to imagine the local child extending and staying several years in Poitiers. The MVP of the last Olympic Games even has an option to leave the club this winter, when the championships will begin in more exotic destinations like Qatar. But Earvin Ngapeth tempers: “I know myself, it will be hard for me to go see the guys in December to tell them ‘Hey, I’m out!’ I am under contract until June 2025 and after what I experienced this summer with the Olympics… I will never experience greater emotions. So to dislodge me from Poitiers this winter, it will really take a big contract and. a project that fits with everything I have in my head at the moment.” Farewell tour or not, the first match in Poitiers against Narbonne this Saturday will be the first of a rockstar tour for Earvin Ngapeth in an already sold out Lawson-Body hall… like in the good old days.
