Valentini: "Every effort I made in training, I had this EHF FINAL4 in mind."

“Honestly, not every moment has been fun. The first months of my pregnancy I was sick as hell, I could basically only play games. The rest of it was really fun, and from the birth on, I have just enjoyed every moment,” she recalls.

Her journey back to the court had plenty of ups and downs. While looking at her playing, you might think she has never been away, but for Chloé Valentini, the feeling is a bit different.

“Some days I feel like I am taking 50 steps forward and the next one 10 steps back, and then the next 20 steps forward,” she laughs, still trying to find her feet with her new self.

“But I am very pleased with where I am right now. I am way nicer to myself than I used to be, and even though I still put everything in question, I do it in a nicer way. I take everything day by day a lot more.”

Her first game back was when Metz Handball played away at Brest Bretagne Handball in a highly-awaited clash in the French league.

“A part of me says that it was full of emotions, but in the meantime, it was super tough. That was the first time I was leaving my baby girl for three days, and I was a wreck of guilt,” she says.

Although this feeling of guilt while travelling for away games has not evaporated, she tries to turn things around a little bit. With the help of her husband and her parents, she has enjoyed handball in a different way.

“Of course, it remains hard to leave. But I know that my girl is in the best possible hands, and there is no way I am not going to enjoy handball. If I leave for training or a game and come back and did not enjoy myself, then what’s the point?” she asks. 

And all these difficulties vanish when the athlete and her daughter make eye contact, with one of them on the court and the other in the stands, on the knees of her dad in Les Arènes.

“I am sure she does not understand what the hell I am doing down there, and she also gives me that smile, and that puts so much joy in my soul. I am happy and proud of the little family I have built,” admits Valentini.

The French national player agrees that becoming a mum has also changed her priorities in life. Whatever happens in the arena now stays in the arena.

“I want to be fully focused on handball when I train or play, but I want to be 100 per cent available for her when I am home,” she says.

Valentini also says that she now uses trips to away games to catch up on some of the sleep she does not have when she cares for the baby at home. “When I am away for three days, I sleep more, I take care of my body with the physios more,” she adds.

It is therefore no wonder that Valentini has been delivering right from the moment she came back on the court. She has already scored 24 goals in the EHF Champions League, having played eight games so far, and she was key in the second leg of the quarter-finals, with six goals in the decisive game against FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria. And now, Metz are back in the EHF FINAL4, an event Valentini missed last year.

“I could tell you that it was tough watching the girls play and not being on the court, but I was at peace with my decision. I had this baby project for so long that I knew I would have to miss some games,” she says.

Does this mean, though, that the excitement might not be as high for this Budapest weekend — when Metz are scheduled to take on CSM Bucuresti in the first semi-final on 6 June — as it was in 2024?

“I am 1,000 per cent excited, I am so looking forward to it. On my journey back, there were a lot of tough moments, moments where I doubted I could be back at the level I had before. But every effort I made in training, every running step I made, I had this EHF FINAL4 in mind. So, trust me to enjoy it,” Valentini concludes.

Photos © Kevin Clement/Cedosa380