It’s signed. Brest Bretagne Handball has just tweeted the extension of Cléopatre Darleux’s contract. The goalkeeper, Olympic champion in Tokyo and vice-world champion with the France team, initials with the Breton club until 2024.
The impression of having always been here – Cléopatre Darleux.
The BBH published a press release in which the player expresses her attachment to the Breton club: “I have been in Brest since 2016 and obviously super happy to extend. In the end, I feel like I’ve always been here (laughs). It’s good to have stability. I feel good at the club so _there was no reason for me to want to go elsewhere_. For the fans, I also think it’s nice to have players they can identify with, with whom they have a special relationship.”
An important presence also within the collective. The goalkeeper is often a key position in a handball team: “I’m starting to have a certain maturity from my age, my experience, the experience at the club. I therefore feel legitimate to transmit things and it is important that the girls who arrive at BBH understand our identity and that we try to build together while respecting a line of conduct.
Finally, the Olympics
2024, a date that is not insignificant, specifies the player: “This new contract will take me until 2024 with at the end _the Olympic Games which are a strong objective_. The next two years will be important. I’m starting to be more at the end than at the beginning and until the Paris Games, I wanted to be in the best conditions. Brest brought it all together.”
At 32, Cléopatre Darleux has returned to the highest international level after a break for maternity leave. A small Olympus who follows her on a few competitions, like during the World Cup in Spain last December. A first-class supporter who will therefore be able to encourage her mother for a few more years.
A very good signal for the coach
Coach Pablo Morel also spoke about this extension: “It’s a very good signal to be able to keep a world-class goalkeeper like Cléo. She is an emblematic figure of the club, she has been there for many years. It’s a good thing that we can extend the adventure with her to also have a core of history in order to transmit the values and the functioning of this club”. indicates the coach.
Especially since Cléo, as her teammates call her, shows an increasingly impressive level of play. Like his performance during the January 19 match in the Champions League against Bucharest with stratospheric statistics: 50% stops on the game. And Pablo Morel to confirm: “Cléo is a goalkeeper who also corresponds to the game plan that we are putting in place with the desire to move forward very quickly. She continues to prove that she has an excellent level of performance and that she can continue to carry the team towards the ambitions that we have set.”
Ambitious goals with a title to defend in the national championship and a vision, too, for the Champions League.