They are focused on the World Cup. Before the start of the World Cup in Japan in mid-July, the French water polo team began a long period of training. First in the south of France, in Canet-en-Roussillon, then there will be Insep, in Paris, before leaving for Montenegro and Serbia. Prepare well to try, already, to make an impression before the Games in Paris, for which they are automatically qualified.
At 36, Mehdi Marzouki faces these last battles with maximum ambition. And the goal, not hidden, to win a medal, at home, in Seine-Saint-Denis, where he grew up and played. Holder of the number of goals in a season, with 104 achievements (answers Kylian Mbappé), the Noiséen confided, in “The Crusaders you know”, about his career and his next goals.
We talk about Kylian Mbappé, but you, the footballer you adored, is Ronaldo. You even have the number 9 on your hat in homage to the Fenomeno…
When I was little, I was a fan of Ronaldo, and that’s why I decided to take the number 9, which I still have today. I liked his technique, his speed, his goals… It was the era of Brazil, joga bonito. He was the player who inspired me. When I played football, I tried to do like him, and when I got into water polo, I took his number straight away.
So why water polo rather than football?
In fact, in football, I played with my friends, but not in a club. I did judo, but I wasn’t really good. We lived 300 meters from the Noisy-le-Sec swimming pool and my mother had registered us for swimming. I did a year, but I found it a bit boring. Afterwards, the coach told me to come and discover water polo, which my brother already practiced.
I tried, I liked it, and I haven’t stopped since. Swimming was monotonous, you were going back and forth. There, we are on a team sport, a ball sport, where you have to score goals, that’s what I liked. I needed a team sport with something at stake. But that was not common. When I said I played water polo, people thought I was kidding.
French water polo was the first French team sport to win an Olympic title in Paris in 1924. But since 1992, it has only been at the Olympics once, in 2016 in Rio. How do you explain that France had so many air pockets?
French water polo is made up of ups and downs. With the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, which was the strongest country in the discipline, we had several countries, such as Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, so there were fewer places for the other countries [qui étaient un peu en dessous]. But, little by little, we started to catch up, we qualified for the Olympics in 2016. We’re starting to feel really good, and I hope it will continue after 2024. At the last Euro, we finished sixth, which corresponds to the world top 6, even if we can also add the United States.
The very ambitious objective is therefore a medal in Paris?
Yes, it’s ambitious, but the Games are at home, we have a great team, with very successful young people, survivors of Rio 2016. We must have great ambitions, it will be in front of our families, our fans. You can’t arrive and just be happy to be there, like in Rio. In Brazil, qualifying was already our medal. There, in Paris, we said that we had to do something big, and it’s within our reach, we can feel it. Year after year, we progress. There is no reason not to dream.
And it would also be a great ending for you…
For me, at the end of the day, you can’t do better than doing the Olympics at home, in front of your family and friends. There is nothing more beautiful than having a medal around your neck at the end. And that’s the thing that gives me all this energy, this motivation to train every day.
It’s not easy like when I was 20, you recover much less well, you have to pay more attention to your lifestyle, your sleep, injuries. If there is no extra motivation at that age, you can quickly fall into the washing machine. When I was younger, I ate just about anything, and I didn’t get enough sleep. It is now that I am most professional.
What is a typical day for a polo player?
In the morning, we will train for two hours in the pool, doing swimming, cardio, technique with passes and shots. In the evening, we train for three hours, including one for bodybuilding. Afterwards, we go into the water, where we repeat the technical and tactical ranges. It’s really intense, especially since it’s a sport with a lot of contact. Us, it’s not like basketball, where when you touch, there is a fault. Underwater, there is a big part with a lot of blows, hooks, we catch the swimsuit. The referee will arbitrate according to what he sees, so not seen not taken.
The typical anti-play fault is when you go on a counter-attack after recovering the ball, if you have your opponent close to you, you will chase him to hurt him, and lean on him to go faster. Then there is the classic drowning attempt. »
The Worlds, will it be a bit of a general rehearsal for the Olympics for you, since you are automatically qualified?
We will gauge ourselves against the other teams, it’s always good to know where we stand. We are going there to go as far as possible, but also to show that we are there, that we will have to count on us for Paris 2024. We must send a message to the opponents, to the referees, to the world of water polo.
There is a big program set up by Paris-2024 to promote swimming, especially in Seine-Saint-Denis, which is a department where children know very little about swimming (46% of children before CM2 know how to swim). Is that also something you want to highlight?
I think 93 is the department with the fewest swimming pools. We already have a lack of infrastructure, and the problem starts there. I remember, when I went to the pool with my school, there were 30 of us per class, we went there for twenty minutes and then we left. Today it’s a bit the same thing, there are so many that there is no time to learn to swim. However, learning to swim is like learning to walk, it’s super important, because it already helps to limit the number of drownings. It is something that must be democratized. But, since I started water polo, I feel that things are changing, with a mix in the pools, which there was not before.
The Olympics in Paris will also allow children to put children into sport, and I hope it will be a start for sport in France, and especially swimming. When Laure Manaudou got results, there was an incredible spike in swimming registrations, because the little ones were watching her on TV. It is up to us to show the way to water polo to trigger passions in children. Me, I would have liked, when I started, to have a model to identify me. Now, the little ones from Noisy-le-Sec or Tourcoing can identify with many of us.