Charles Bolzinger: “All my thoughts go to Samir Bellahcene, he has become a friend, so it hurts to see a teammate get injured”

Charles Bolzinger a joué avec les Bleus ce samedi pour la première fois de la compétition. FFHB – ICON SPORT

Charles Bolzinger played his first minutes with the French team in this 2025 Handball World Cup during the victory of the Blues against Austria (35-27), thanks to the withdrawal of Samir Bellahcene, not without difficulty in the situation.

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The dismay of one of the Montpellier goalkeepers was good for another: taking advantage of the withdrawal, on Friday, of Samir Bellahcene for the rest of the Handball World Cup, Charles Bolzinger played for the first time with the Blues in the competition, during the French victory against Austria (35-27).

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“All my thoughts go to Samir (Bellahcene), he's someone I've known since I was little, he told our colleagues at beIN SPORTS after the match. He's become a friend, so it hurts to see a teammate get injured like that. I'm ready to go into this tournament, we train normally with the whole team. We'll have to be ready to take over from Rémi.”

Good first

Coming on after the 20th minute in place of his teammate at MHB and suffering a sprained ankle warm-up, Rémi Desbonnet, Bolzinger had a rather convincing game with seven saves in total (32%), including a penalty save against one of the very best in the exercise, Sebastian Frimmel.

“I'm satisfied anyway because it's the first time that I've come out of a France team match quite satisfied and with a smile. I found some relaxation and I had a lot of fun”, he told our colleagues.

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