“All of us, at our levels, we can really do better, including the coach”, launched Sunday Sandrine Gruda at the microphone of beIN Sports, a critical message sent to Jean-Aimé Toupane, after the victory for bronze at the Euro -2023.
Asked if the message between the coach and the players was going well, Sandrine Gruda replied: “Maybe I could answer it off. I don’t want to point fingers at anyone. When we lose, we all lose together”.
“It’s true that all of us, at our levels, we can really do better, including the coach. That’s it, that’s just what I can say, ”added the best scorer in the history of the French women’s team on her 36th birthday.
Toupane arrived at the head of the France team in the fall of 2021, replacing Valérie Garnier. The coach in place since 2013 had not been extended in her functions until the Paris Olympics in 2024, despite four European silver medals and a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in 2021 in Tokyo.
Coming from the men’s sector, Toupane had been appointed with the main objective on the road to the 2024 Olympics to win this European crown which slipped into the hands of the French women on the last step in 2013 with Pierre Vincent, then in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 with Valérie Garnier.
The French leave Ljubljana with a bronze medal after their victory over Hungary, thus falling back in the European hierarchy just over a year from the Games at home in Lille (1st round) then in Paris-Bercy (from the quarters of final).