Mayonnade: “What we do at Metz is underestimated”

Metz are back at the EHF FINAL4 — for the second year in a row, and the fourth time in total.

“Maybe this qualification has a different taste, because we have recent experience of the event. We were in Budapest last season, whereas before, we would qualify every two or three years,” says Emmanuel Mayonnade.

But the head coach adds: “When I remember every step we made to qualify, I reckon it was hard work.”

In their first group match against Storhamar Handball Elite last September, Metz Handball found themselves 29:26 down in the 57th minute but ultimately managed to leave Norway with a 29:29 draw thanks to an equaliser from Léna Grandveau in the closing seconds.

Things at Metz did not look too rosy, yet. The national team players had only joined the pre-season preparation midway through, after playing the Paris 2024 Olympics. The French club seemed far away from a place amongst the four best teams of the season.

“I used the metaphor of the Moneyball movie, with Brad Pitt, in which, despite financial problems, the staff of a baseball club tried to build the best team possible. It felt like us, in a way — but with no financial problems,” Mayonnade says. “In the plane back home, the staff said to each other that this season would be no piece of cake.”

But the tide quickly turned. Metz started winning, winning, winning. In the domestic league, they had a draw here and there, but in the EHF Champions League, they won all 15 matches after that opener against Storhamar and overall, they remained unbeaten more than 40 matches.

“There is so much exigency within this club that you can’t imagine it just looking from the outside. Whether it’s the staff towards the players, the other way around, or towards the president… That is what takes us a mile further every day. That, and the hate of defeat,” Mayonnade says.

Despite not losing a game this season, Metz will still be regarded by many as underdogs at the EHF FINAL4, with Odense Håndbold, Team Esbjerg, and defending champions Györi Audi ETO KC the other contenders at MVM Dome on 31 May and 1 June.

“I think that what we do at Metz Handball is underestimated. Especially compared to other sports, or clubs with bigger budgets than we have,” Mayonnade says. “These girls have been travelling around Europe and France twice a week, sometimes by bus or taking planes at 5 a.m., but they have never complained once. And they have won almost every game this season.”

So, will the unbeaten streak last in Budapest? After all, Metz have failed to win their semi-final all three previous times at the EHF FINAL4.

“I do believe there is a way for us to beat Odense. A tiny path, but that still exists,” Mayonnade says. “They have Katrine Lunde, but we have Cléopatre Darleux. They have Mie Højlund, but we have Anne Mette Hansen. There is no less quality in our team than in theirs.”

Even the absence of key players Chloé Valentini and Laura Flippes, who have both announced their pregnancy recently, does not dampen the coach’s spirit.

“They will travel with us, and they will bring everything they can without being on the court,” says Mayonnade, who turns 42 in June and has extended his contract as Metz head coach for another season — his 10th with the club.

“This team has been through so much this season, and it has been ready to adapt so much already that I feel like we are ready for everything.”

photos © main: Kevin Clement; in-text: Kevin Clement, cedosa