Lausanne, Switzerland, July 30, 2017 – France coach Laurent Tillie has called up 14 players for the start of his team’s 12-day training camp in Montpellier that will be their first step in preparing for the Italy-Bulgaria 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.
The World Championship runs from September 9 to 30 and France begin their campaign in Pool B where they will face Olympic champions Brazil, Canada, Egypt, China and the Netherlands.
Les Bleus will play five matches before they turn their minds fully to the World Championship. On August 11 they face the Netherlands, and later in the month they travel to Krakow for the four-team Hubert Jerzy Wagner Memorial tournament against defending world champions Poland, European and Volleyball Nations League champions Russia, and Canada from August 24-26.
Their final match before travelling to Bulgaria is against Serbia in Paris on September 2.
France have enjoyed a remarkable rise since they finished fourth and narrowly missed out on the medals at the Poland 2014 World Championship.
Earlier in July, Tillie’s team won silver in the inaugural Volleyball Nations League after they lost to Russia in the final in Lille. France won gold at the 2015 and 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League and in between won bronze in 2016. They also won gold at the 2015 CEV European Championship.
France Squad
Jonas Aguenier
Jenia Grebennikov
Jean Patry
Benjamin Toniutti
Kevin Tillie
Julien Lyneel
Earvin Ngapeth
Kevin Le Roux
Antoine Brizard
Stephen Boyer
Nicolas Le Goff
Jeremie Mouiel
Thibault Rossard
Barthelemy Chinenyeze