French basketball leaders are definitely having a hard time agreeing on the Thomas Heurtel case. The playmaker, who is no longer selectable for the France team after joining a Russian club this season, is not however definitively “scratched” with the Blues, manager Boris Diaw said on Tuesday, thus tempering the recent about the president of the Federation.
Jean-Pierre Siutat had indicated on November 1 at The Team that Heurtel would not return to the France team after having pledged this summer on honor, like all internationals following the war in Ukraine, not to join a Russian or Belarusian club. Less than two months later, Zenith Saint-Petersburg formalized its recruitment.
What about the World Cup and the Olympics if he doesn’t stay?
“We can discuss those already in Russia who had not signed the certificate (Livio Jean-Charles at CSKA Moscow and Louis Labeyrie at Unics Kazan) but concerning Thomas, to whom we had clearly presented things, he did not did not honor his commitment. To date, for me, I consider that he will no longer be there (in the France team). It’s over,” Siutat told the sports daily.
Heurtel, one of the great architects of the silver medal brought back by the Blues during the Euro in September, signed for one more year as an option with his new Russian club. The question is whether he could become selectable again next summer, with a view to the 2023 World Cup (August 25-September 10) in the event of the qualification of the Blues, and the 2024 Paris Olympics, if ever he did not activate his additional year.
Not Heurtel’s problem
“We are not there yet. We can only talk about now, for the future there will be decisions to be made, ”replied Diaw during a press briefing in Nanterre, where the Blues are preparing two qualifying matches for the 2023 World Cup, Thursday in Lithuania then Monday in Pau. against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Relaunched on the fact of knowing if Heurtel was therefore not definitively scratched from the ranks of the Blues, Diaw retorted: “Neither scratched, nor in the France team either. Heurtel, 33, said on October 10 that he “completely gave a damn” about his decision to join the Zénith Saint-Petersburg.