April 15, 2023

The Thomas Heurtel affair (33 years old, 99 selections) is not yet over. In an interview given to West France, the leader, who signed following the Eurobasket at the Zénith Saint-Petersburg, in Russia, on September 22, and who is therefore no longer selectable since, recalled his attachment to the tricolor jersey, while affirming his incomprehension as to the sanction taken towards him. “It’s always an honor to wear this jersey. I really don’t understand the purpose of this decision. I don’t think it makes sense to be punished for just working in a Russian club. »

Solicited at Trélazé (Maine-et-Loire), where France will face Lithuania on Sunday (6 p.m.), the members of the staff of the France team did not wish to react, considering that they had already formalized everything on Tuesday in Nanterre. At the beginning of the week, on the occasion of the start of the Blues rally, coach Vincent Collet and general manager Boris Diaw recalled that Thomas Heurtel had been banned from selection by a decision taken by a federal office and that such an office should once more be met if ever the leader presented the conditions required to claim a selection once more.

Siutat had definitively closed the door to Heurtel

Last November, the president of the French Basketball Federation Jean-Pierre Siutat said that Heurtel would no longer return to the France team. The reason ? His signing with the Russian club Zenith Saint-Petersburg. The player had previously signed a declaration of honor promising that he would not engage with a Russian club as long as the war in Ukraine lasted. In the process, the manager of the France team Boris Diaw had tempered the words of his president, declaring that Heurtel was not definitively “scratched” of the national selection.

Without hiding it, Heurtel has also placed the 2024 Olympic Games in its sights. The next big thing is the 2023 World Cup (August 25 – September 10) in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.