As every year at the start of the season, we try to make an overview of the transfers, looking mostly at those teams which are interested in the Champions League and European Cups.
First, we take a look on the French clubs and how they managed to form their squads for the 2018/2019 season.
Metz Handball and Brest Bretagne are the two French teams which will participate already in the group plays of Women EHF Champions League. Issy Paris, E.S. Becancon, and Nantes will compete in the EHF Cup.
Metz Handball
Left: Ana Gros (Brest), Marina Raicic (Buducnost), Larissa Landre (Toulon), Marie-Helene Sajka (Toulon), Kyra Csapó (DKKA, back from loan, goalkeeper)
Newcomers: Ivana Kapitanovic (Podravka, goalkeeper ), Astrid N’Guoan (Brest, line player), Gnonsiane Niombla (CSM Bucuresti, left back), Alexandra Zych (Gdynia, right back), Sharon Nooitmeer (Dalfsen, line player)
Metz Handball could be weakened somehow on the goalkeeper and right back position if we look at the names and their most scoring player, Ana Gros has moved to their French rival, Brest, Laura Glausser is coming back after a childbirth and Kapitanovic is a newcomer.
Brest Bretagne Handball
Left: Louise Sand (Fleury, leftwing), Lindsay Burlet (Besancon, back player), Astrid N’Gouan (Metz, line player), Sophie Herbrecht (Artkrich)
Newcomers: Ana Gros (Metz, right back), Isabelle Gulldén (CSM Bucuresti, playmaker), Pauletta Foppa (Fleury, line player), Constance Mauny (Chambray, right back)
Brest seems to become stronger on their backline with Slovenian Ana Gros and Swedish Isabelle Gulldén, both having enormously with CL experience.
ES Besancon
Left: Catherine Gabriel (Nantes, goalkeeper), Apolline Feuvrier (Palente, right-wing), Julie Dazet (Dijon, playmaker), Laurence Brame (Cannes, line player), Anna Manaut (Cannes, right back), Nelly Plazenet(Cannes left back)
Newcomers: Lindsay Burlet (Brest, right back), Lara Gonzalez (Team Esbjerg, left back), Monika Rajnohova (Le Havre, playmaker), Ine Karlsen Stangvik (Team Esbjerg, goalkeeper)
photo: Tamás Csonka – Alexandrina Cabral Barbosa returns to France after two years in Russia
Nantes Loire Atlantique
Left: Gervaise Pierson (?, goalkeeper), Isabelle Klein(?, right back), Jan Basny(Ajaccio, head coach), Wendy Lawson (Rochechouart, leftwing), Cira Lo (Noisy, goalkeeper), Julie Soulard (Boden, Sweden, playmaker), Anette Hansen (Bourg de Péeage, right back)
Newcomers: Camille Ayglon-Saurina (CSM Bucuresti, right back), Alexandrina Cabral Barbosa (Rostov Don, left back), Szabina Mayer (FKC, HUN, line player), Paule Baudouin (Fleury, leftwing), Elaine Gomez (Kastamonu, line player), Catherine Gabriel (Besancon, goalkeeper), Frederic Bougeant (Rostov Don, head coach), Vanessa Boutrouille (Chambray, left back)
Issy Paris Handball
Left: Silje Solberg (Siófok KC, goalkeeper), Lois Abbingh (Rostov Don, left back), Deborah Dangueuger (?, goalkeeper), Louise Lefevre (Dijon, playmaker), Sophia Fehri (Dijon, line player)
Newcomers: Lucia Satrapova (Kristianstadt, goalkeeper)
Toulon is not a European Cup participant, but several well known European top players transferred to the club. Among them, Siraba Dembele returned from a long career abroad, she left Rostov Don, Larissa Landre came from Metz, Jasmina Jankovic, the Dutch goalkeeper left Metzingen fro Toulon.
Fleury has strengthened their lines with Swedish leftwinger Louise Sand (Brest, Alexandra Lacrabéere (Vardar) and Croatian Kristina Franic-Elez (Kastamonu)
Conclusion: several important quality players left the French championship: Marina Raicic, Silje Solberg, Lois Abbingh, but the most of top player hs just changes clubs inside of the country and is remarkable the foreign player’s names which arrived in France (Gulldén, Gonzalez, Satrapova, Jankovic, Franic-Elez or Barbosa) or the quality of the French players returned home (Ayglon, Lacrabére, Dembele, Niombla), so the quality of the French women championship will not get lower in the next season either.
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