France men at the 2026 World Cup: Les Bleus between a Belgian heart, Dutch composure and a Spanish defence

On Saturday 20 June 2026, at the Hartleyvale Stadium in Cape Town, François Goyet and his teammates closed a campaign that no one had seen coming a year earlier. In the final of the FIH Nations Cup, Les Bleus beat host nation South Africa 2-1, after an opening goal from Victor Charlet in the fourth minute and a consolation goal from Sam Mvimbi just before time. France won the Nations Cup for the first time in its history. More importantly: promotion to the 2026-27 FIH Hockey Pro League was thereby secured. Goyet, Player of the Match, told the FFH cameras: "Cela fait des années que nous essayons de remporter cette compétition et d'accéder à la Pro League et je pense que cette fois, nous le méritons ! Nous avons un nouveau staff, plein de jeunes joueurs remarquables, l'ambiance est excellente et tout cela se ressent sur le terrain."

Three months earlier, in early March 2026 in Santiago de Chile, that same Goyet had been named Player of the Match after France beat Poland 4-2 in the cross-over of the FIH World Cup Qualifier. The World Cup ticket was secured then. In the final two days later the team lost 1-2 to Ireland, but that stopped no one from celebrating the qualification. What began in 1972, an absence from a men's hockey Olympics that would last 52 years, came home in 2024 at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir and is now, in August 2026, continued on Belgian soil.

This dossier turns on one question: can this French paradox nation, inventor of the FIH in 1924 and thereafter a century in the shadow of Belgians and Germans, finally convert the junior World Cup medals of 2013 to 2023 and the recent Nations Cup title into a senior breakthrough, at a World Cup in Wavre, in a pool with those same Belgians and Germans who have kept them from it for years?

World ranking

As of 29 June 2026, in the FIH ranking mid-year update after the Nations Cup, France sits ninth in the men's world ranking with 2696 points. One point above Ireland (2695), three points below New Zealand in eighth. The highest point since the FIH ranking system was introduced in 2003. The team climbed from 20th (end of 2018) to 9th in eight years.

Qualification and the title leap

A two-week campaign in Santiago (1-8 March 2026) delivered a third consecutive World Cup appearance. In Pool A with Scotland, Wales and host nation Chile, France had a jolting start: a 3-2 defeat to Scotland in which it led 2-0 after just twenty minutes through goals from Gaspard Denis and Charlet, but conceded three goals within three minutes in the second quarter to the Golden brothers. Then came the response: a 5-0 win over Wales in which Charlet scored a hat-trick and Benjamin Marqué struck twice, followed by a 3-3 draw against Chile in which Marqué scored the decisive equaliser in the 56th minute. On goal difference France finished first in Pool A.

In the cross-over against Poland the team showed tactical maturity: 3-0 up after ten minutes of the second quarter through Stanislas Branicki and Xavier Esmenjaud, then a solid 4-2 with the third French goal from Corentin Sellier. Goyet was named Player of the Match. Two days later, in the final against Ireland, it ended 1-2. France left as runner-up and with a World Cup ticket that it holds for the fifth time in its history, after 1971, 1990, 2018 and 2023.

Three months later, in Cape Town, came the second big title leap. France crowned itself pool winner during the Nations Cup and then tournament winner via a 2-1 final victory over South Africa. Charlet became top scorer of the tournament with eight goals. Corentin Sellier was voted Player of the Tournament and Malo Martinache Best Young Player. More important still than the individual haul was the promotion: France returns to the FIH Hockey Pro League from the 2026-27 season, after a four-year absence. Amaury Bellanger summed it up soberly afterwards at the FFH: "Nous avons terminé second l'an dernier en Pologne et nous voulions gagner pour pouvoir rejouer en Pro League." What France lost in 2022 and narrowly missed in 2025 after a runner-up finish, finally landed in June 2026. The promotion means that from next season the team plays structurally against the Netherlands, Australia, India and Argentina, precisely the opponents that Dohmen identifies as the "top-3 nations" of world hockey and against whom France had barely any regular exposure over the past three years.

From founder to outsider

French men's hockey has lived a paradox since its origins. The first international match was on 1 April 1906, with players from Stade français, CAI and the then still young USFSA. Two years later they played the Olympic Games in London and finished sixth, in the first Olympic edition in which hockey was on the programme. In 1920 in Antwerp France came fourth, in 1936 in Berlin fourth again. Before 1972 in Munich they counted ten Olympic appearances; before 2024 in Paris still ten, a gap of 52 years in their own Olympic cycle.

At the root lies the paradox of Paris 1924. When the International Olympic Committee, under pressure from a conflict between British hockey associations and the Belgian IOC member, dropped hockey from the programme of its own Games, the Frenchman Paul Léautey organised a congress in Paris on 7 January 1924 at which seven countries, France among them, founded the Fédération Internationale de Hockey. Léautey became its first president, a post he held until 1955. Between 1932 and 1938 Dr. Marc Bellin du Côteau was simultaneously president of both the FFH and the FIH, a dual role that still illustrates how central France stood in the governance structure of world hockey.

On the pitch that centrality did not hold. The FIH founder became an outsider in its own sport. Between 1971 and 2018, a period of 47 years, France played only two World Cups, in 1971 and 1990, seventh on both occasions. The 2018 World Cup in Bhubaneswar under head coach Jeroen Delmee brought the first resurgence: France beat Olympic champion Argentina in the group stage 5-3, reached the cross-over against China and won it 1-0 through a penalty corner goal from Charlet in the 44th minute. In the quarter-final France lost 0-3 to Australia. Eighth place, but the best World Cup result in 28 years.

The 2023 World Cup in Odisha went disappointingly: thirteenth place, no cross-over. At the home Games in 2024 France finished last in Pool A. With two 5-0 defeats to the Netherlands and Belgium as the starting signal and only one draw (3-3 against Spain), an Olympics from which much was expected ended in eleventh and second-to-last place. It was no disaster, but neither the breakthrough the FFH had banked on.

France men's World Cup appearances

The junior legacy

On the junior side a stronger picture emerges. Between 2013 and 2023 France played four Junior World Cups and took three medals: silver in 2013 in New Delhi (the first ever FIH medal for French hockey), bronze in 2021 in Bhubaneswar (with Timothée Clément as Best Player and later FIH Rising Star of the Year 2021-22) and silver in 2023 in Kuala Lumpur (with Gaspard Xavier as Best Player). At the 2025 Junior World Cup in Tamil Nadu France dropped to seventh place, but the legacy of three podium finishes in four editions is unique for a country that at senior level invariably camps in mid-table.

The appointment

On 14 August 2025, at the Warsteiner HockeyPark in Mönchengladbach, France played the semi-final of the 2025 EuroHockey Championship against the Netherlands. Les Bleus lost 1-3 to the reigning Olympic and European champion, but in doing so reached the European last four for the first time since 1970. An anonymous French player told DH/Les Sports+ afterwards what had changed: "Il est arrivé avec son nouveau projet. Nous sortions de trois années très difficiles. Le groupe sentait cette fraîcheur. Le staff a remis la notion de plaisir dans le travail. La cohérence aussi. Ce qu'il a fait de mieux, c'est de ramener de la sérénité."

The man who brought back "calm and serenity": John-John Dohmen, 481-cap Belgian international, Olympic champion Tokyo 2020, FIH Player of the Year 2017, and head coach of France since 21 February 2025. His appointment was no ad hoc choice. After the disappointing eleventh place at the Paris Games, FFH president Henri-Claude Lambert, elected in December 2024, initiated a thorough audit with the Agence Nationale du Sport (ANS). Sitting head coach Frédéric Soyez was moved aside in the autumn of 2024; an open call for candidates was issued. Dohmen applied and was selected. In his first FFH interview he admitted the choice was no impulse: "Je suis passionné par le sport de haut niveau et j'avais envie de poursuivre ma carrière d'entraîneur dans le hockey de haut niveau. La France est une équipe que j'ai toujours eu envie de coacher. Cela fait quatre ou cinq ans que j'y pensais, et lorsque j'ai vu l'appel à candidature, j'ai sauté sur l'occasion."

Lambert explained the cocktail choice to L'Équipe with a budget-realistic undertone: "On n'a pas les moyens de se payer un entraîneur d'une des 10 premières nations mondiales qui nous coûterait 100 000 € par an." That may sound cynical, but it worked: a Belgian icon who had not yet worked as a head coach after his playing career was affordable and at the same time of a level that France could not otherwise have attracted. Plus Lambert emphatically: "C'est un staff ambitieux. Si c'est pour faire ce qu'on faisait avant, en essayant de faire un peu mieux, ce n'est pas la peine. C'est un staff en rupture par rapport ce qui se faisait avant, mais avec quand même beaucoup de sécurité."

The international staff

The staff is broader than most media show. Alongside Dohmen, Ramón Sala Vallhonrat works as adjoint; Sala was already assistant under Soyez and is also head coach of Real Club Polo de Barcelona, one of the leading clubs in Europe. Jeroen Hertzberger, with 267 Oranje caps and the record as all-time top scorer of the Euro Hockey League (26 goals), is a consultant for the attacking game. Dohmen explained exactly why he wanted him: "Vous avez la qualité, mais vous n'êtes pas organisés en attaque. Donc en T3, on a pris le meilleur attaquant du monde, tout simplement: le Néerlandais Jeroen Hertzberger, qui joue au FC Rotterdam et qui est une star mondiale. Mais ce n'est pas pour ça qu'on le prend. On le prend parce qu'il va travailler comme consultant avec les deux autres sur la coordination et l'efficacité en attaque."

The staff is completed by Fabian Bernard as fitness coach and Julien Héricourt as manager, following his experience as manager of Para Athletics during Paris 2024.

The plan and the context

Dohmen's plan has four pillars, listed during that same FFH interview: "Nous allons revenir aux bases du hockey, ce qui fait qu'une équipe gagne des matchs, ou du moins, devient difficile à battre. Ensuite, nous allons retravailler la cohésion d'équipe et enfin, améliorer notre efficacité dans les deux cercles, un point clé." Asked how players would be given responsibility: "Nous allons leur donner confiance et les encourager à se sentir libres sur le terrain. Mais surtout, c'est à eux de construire leur identité collective. Le staff est là pour les aider, mais ce sont eux qui jouent et qui méritent les victoires."

A striking formulation from DH/Les Sports+ captured the cocktail identity perfectly: "John-John Dohmen et Jeroen Hertzberger ont disputé tant de matchs l'un contre l'autre. Cette fois, le Rouge et le Oranje seront dans le même camp: celui des... Bleus."

Predecessor Jeroen Delmee, who led France to the World Cup quarter-final in 2018, has been head coach of the Netherlands since September 2021 and won Olympic gold with Oranje in Paris 2024. The Franco-Dutch coaching axis therefore predates Hertzberger's appointment; it has become more than a one-off cocktail. Since May 2026 Soyez has meanwhile been working as coach of India U21.

A year and a half after taking charge, in the run-up to the World Cup, Dohmen chose an explicit reference to the emotionally charged opening match. In the FIH team profile of 28 July 2026 he stated: "As the coach of the French national team, I am proud to represent this team at the World Cup. We improve with each tournament, and our objective will be the same for this one." And on France-Belgium on 15 August: "The match against Belgium will be very special for me, but also for all my players, almost all of whom play in what is one of the best leagues in the world. The Belgium-France match will be one of the best of this World Cup." Behind that diplomatic sentence lies a double charge: it is his first World Cup opening match as coach, against the team he played two hundred matches for. For Hertzberger something similar applies: his contract as attacking consultant officially expired on World Cup qualification in March, with an extension clause on success, and from September 2026 he becomes head coach at national champion HC Rotterdam (NOS announcement 31 May 2026). As long as the Dutch Tulp Hoofdklasse only starts after the World Cup, everything points to him being in the France dug-out during the tournament.

Pro League standings 2025-2026

France did not play in the FIH Hockey Pro League in the 2025-26 season. That changes from 2026-27: thanks to the Nations Cup title the team returns to the "League of the Best" after a break since 2022. For the World Cup this means that the tactical work of Dohmen, Sala and Hertzberger has so far largely taken place at training camps, friendlies and continental tournaments (2025 EuroHockey, 2026 Nations Cup), without continuous competitive rhythm against the Netherlands, Australia, India and Argentina. Table not applicable for the current season.

The definitive twenty

On 3 August 2026 the FFH published the definitive World Cup squad: twenty players, without a hard split between a base eighteen and two reserves. It is striking who is not on it: Etienne Tynevez, for years the regular striking partner of Timothée Clément at both France and La Gantoise, is described as "insuffisamment rétabli pour ce tournoi" and drops out injured. Goalkeeper Edgar Reynaud, penalty corner specialist Stanislas Branicki and 2025 Junior World Cup top scorer Gaspard Denis, all present in earlier squad groups, are also not travelling to Wavre. Instead Lucas Montecot moves back in, alongside him the young trio Aristide Michaelis, Malo Martinache and Louis Haertelmeyer representing the U21 batch.

Key players

When Charlet scored three goals against Wales in Santiago, with his characteristic penalty corner style of the 1.96m tall drag flicker, the team reminded everyone that French hockey has one of the most feared set-piece specialists in the world in its ranks. Four months later, during the Nations Cup in Cape Town, he repeated the trick on a larger scale: eight goals in five matches, top scorer of the tournament, and the opening goal in the winning final against South Africa. Charlet is 32 years old, born in Lille, was the anchor of Waterloo Ducks for ten years, briefly active in 2024 with Team Gonasika in the Hockey India League and, since the 2025-26 season, back in the French Elite with Polo HCM (Marcq-en-Baroeul). His FIH team profile reports, at the time of writing, 176 goals in 183 internationals.

The captain since Dohmen's time has been François Goyet, a midfielder with enormous work rate and tactical oversight. He was Player of the Match in France-Poland 4-2 in Santiago, scored the only French goal in the EuroHockey semi-final against the Netherlands on a penalty corner that he himself deflected, and was named Player of the Match again in the Nations Cup final against South Africa. Since 2024 Goyet has played for Saint-Germain HC again, after five seasons at La Gantoise. Alongside him Eliot Curty works as second tactical engine; he too moved via CA Montrouge and Royal Orée to the Belgian top, where he has played for Waterloo Ducks since 2023.

Two names are central in the attacking block. Timothée Clément (1.93m, born in Paris in April 2000) is the son of Guillaume Clément, long the caps record holder of French men's hockey with 164 selections. Timothée went via CA Montrouge, the Pôle Espoirs in Châtenay-Malabry and the INSEP in Paris to Royal Orée and, since 2022, La Gantoise, together with his brother Mathis, who as a central defender is also included in the World Cup 20. At the age of 18 Timothée scored the only goal in a match that deserves to stand in every hockey archive: the 2018 World Cup cross-over against China, which took France to the quarter-final. In the Olympics.com portrait he looked back: "J'étais le plus jeune et je n'étais pas forcément le plus physique, mais j'essayais." In 2021, at the Junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar, he delivered 15 goals in six matches with four hat-tricks. The FIH named him Rising Star of the Year in 2022, the first Frenchman ever. In the FIH team profile of July 2026 he reflected on the road to Wavre: "After our Nations Cup victory in Cape Town, we got straight back to intense training to prepare for the World Cup. We know we have a very challenging pool with world No. 1 Belgium, the host nation, world No. 5 Germany, and a strong Malaysian side. Every game will be a real battle. Our goal is to challenge the two favorites, create an upset if we can, and make sure we perform at our very best against Malaysia as well."

The great surprise of 2025 and 2026 was the individual haul. Malo Martinache (Lille MHC, 19 years old in July 2026) was named Best Young Player at the 2025 EuroHockey, repeated that feat at the 2026 Nations Cup, and is now on the definitive World Cup list as a defender. Corentin Saunier (Polo HCM, 33 years old) was Best Goalkeeper of the 2025 EuroHockey, and returned to French side Polo HCM together with Charlet. Both thereby form an intriguing case: two world-class French players who explicitly chose to play outside the Belgian league and to help build the Elite competition at home.

In defence, alongside Charlet, the name of Gaspard Xavier stands out. Born in Cambrai in May 2002, spotted in the French Nationale 1 at sixteen, taken away in 2020 by Racing Club de Bruxelles on the advice of scout Olivier Nonnon. With the juniors he took bronze at the 2021 Junior World Cup and silver at the 2023 Junior World Cup, where he was named Best Player of the tournament. At the Paris 2024 Olympics he made his senior Olympic debut. The Carlsberg Belgian Hockey League magazine asked him about his opening ceremony experience: "Participer à la cérémonie d'ouverture, grandiose, est un souvenir qui restera gravé à vie dans ma mémoire."

The final reinforcement comes from the 2025 U21 generation. The final twenty includes Aristide Michaelis (Racing Club de France) as midfielder, Louis Haertelmeyer (CA Montrouge) as midfielder and Malo Martinache (Lille MHC). The returning Lucas Montecot also gets his chance; in an interview with Equipe-France.fr he described his transfer from CA Montrouge to Royal Beerschot as "the step to the second best league in the world". Corentin Sellier, Player of the Tournament during the Nations Cup, expressed the spirit of the group just after the final: "La seconde mi-temps était difficile mais nous nous sommes battus tous ensemble et nous sommes heureux."

The French World Cup squad is geographically distributed as follows: eight players play in the French Elite top clubs (CA Montrouge, Lille MHC, Polo HCM, Racing Club de France, Saint-Germain HC), and twelve players play in the Belgian Honor Division or comparable Benelux leagues (with the regular names La Gantoise, Waterloo Ducks, Royal Beerschot, Racing Club de Bruxelles). Notable in the FFH list: many players are listed as "Club France" instead of their club competition. That is not a real club but the designation for the centralised federal programme at Yves-du-Manoir, where players train directly under FFH leadership. That "Club France" status is still a relatively new phenomenon, introduced partly by Lambert, that restructures the contribution of French clubs to national preparation.

Definitive 2026 World Cup squad France men (FFH, 3 August 2026)

Cap figures are indicative as of August 2026 and may deviate slightly by the World Cup. "Club France" is the FFH designation for players who work entirely within the centralised federal programme at Yves-du-Manoir. Twelve of the twenty selected played in the Benelux leagues last season.

The tactical core

On 8 August 2025, in the opening match of the 2025 EuroHockey against reigning world champion Germany, France led 2-0 with ten minutes to go. The Germans won 3-2 all the same. Four days later there was a mirror image: against England, Clément scored the winning goal in the very last seconds for 3-2. Between those two poles lies the heart of Dohmen's tactical rebuild: no more collapsing in a marginal moment, no more panicking under pressure in the closing phase.

According to that same anonymous player source in DH, the tactical core lies in simplicity, not in secret systems: "Sur un plan tactique, le Brabançon a posé sa griffe avec des choix simples. Il a remis la structure avec des idées claires et simples." And in mental autonomy: "Lui, il parle de manière décomplexée. Il n'a peur d'aucune équipe. Il nous donne l'espoir que nous pouvons le faire aussi. Ce travail mental est capital."

In concrete terms that translates into four observable choices:

Four observable choices

Defensively France no longer plays a continuous man-to-man press as under Soyez, but a compact half-field press that forces the opponent into risky balls through the middle. Against dominant possession sides like the Netherlands or Germany the block drops in, with the aim of winning the ball back not at the halfway line but in its own half, where the spaces behind the opponent's striker are larger.

In transition France goes vertical. Charlet's long, high passes over the defence, often to Clément and Sellier slipping in deep, have become a trademark. It is Hertzberger's influence: his motto at Rotterdam and Oranje was always that a striker should not seek the ball but the space. Olivier Hortensius, former Rotterdam teammate and current Oranje international, told hockey.nl in the run-up to the Franco-Dutch EuroHockey semi-final what Hertzberger once taught him: "He was always in the right spot. The moment everyone drifted off a bit, as happened to us a little against Austria, at 5-0 and everyone thinking: well, that'll do, Hertz would have made four more."

At set pieces Charlet is the most feared drag flicker outside the absolute top three. At the 2025 EuroHockey he scored the opening goal against Germany from a penalty stroke, then two penalty corner goals against Wales and a penalty corner strike against Chile. In Santiago his role grew further: a hat-trick against Wales, goals against Chile and Poland. And at the Nations Cup in Cape Town came the crowning glory: eight goals in five matches, top scorer of the tournament, with the opening goal in the winning final against South Africa. Alongside him the tactical depth on penalty corners is meanwhile shifting to the U21 generation, with Michaelis and Haertelmeyer as successors to Branicki.

In the circle the "efficacité dans les deux cercles" that Dohmen spoke of is by now measurable. In the Wikipedia overview of France-Poland Santiago France built the win on a tactical tempo: 25 circle penetrations, three penalty corners, one penalty stroke. Not the quantity (the pool winners of Pool A were not always more dominant in possession) but the finishing became the difference.

The weakness

What this system lacks is resilience across a three-week tournament. The 2025 EuroHockey showed France in peaks of quality (winning goal against England, semi-final against the Netherlands) and troughs (close against Germany, third-place match 0-2 to Spain). A World Cup has eight potentially high-tension matches between 15 and 30 August. That is what Dohmen admitted after the EuroHockey in RTBF: "On a vraiment eu une bonne attitude sur le terrain et c'est la base de tout pour construire quelque chose. (...) On a changé l'attitude de l'équipe et ses valeurs. En fonction de cela, on a mis en place une tactique qui y correspond."

The Netherlands

Over the past eighteen months France met the Netherlands three times in tournament context. On 28 July 2024, in the opening match of the Paris Olympics at their own Stade Yves-du-Manoir, it ended 4-0 for the Oranje men. On 14 August 2025, in the EuroHockey semi-final in Mönchengladbach, it was 3-1 for the Netherlands. And in preparation for that EuroHockey, France played another friendly against the Netherlands in July 2025 at the Wagner Stadium, which ended 4-3 for Oranje. In that friendly Maximilien Branicki, Charlet and Baumgarten scored for France; Hertzberger scored one goal for the Netherlands on a penalty corner. A symbolic irony: his last telling blow as a player, while he had meanwhile been assisting France on the other side of the fence.

Germany

With Germany the margins have been more telling. 2025 EuroHockey opener: a 3-2 defeat in which France squandered a 2-0 lead. Junior World Cup finals: Germany-France 5-2 in 2013, and again Germany-France 5-2 in 2023. Three times a final or a pool opener against a German team, three times a fine match and three times a narrow disappointment. Dohmen's own analysis, in an FIH interview during the Nations Cup in Malaysia, speaks of a parallel with the Belgian team of fifteen years ago: a generation with physical potential and talent that still had to learn to win consistently at the highest level.

Belgium

The relationship with Belgium is more complex. Seventy per cent of the French World Cup squad plays in the Belgian Honor Division. They know the Belgian opponents in detail, they train on the same pitches, they are coached by club coaches who know how to find each other. That creates an atmosphere of familiarity but also of a need to prove. Historically French hockey players were approached in Belgium with a paternalistic tone: a little brother with talent still under the discipline of the Red Lions. In the 2021-2022 FIH Pro League France lost twice narrowly to the then Olympic champion Belgium (2-1 and 3-1). Margins like that have tipped the picture. At the 2026 World Cup France plays its pool matches on Belgian soil, against those Belgians among others, with a Belgian icon on the bench and with players who play their club competition in the same cities. It is a kind of second homeland.

Spain and South Africa

Spain is the fourth rival. On 16 August 2025 France lost the third-place match of the 2025 EuroHockey 0-2 to Spain. A sensitive result: Sala is Spanish, and knows Spanish hockey through and through. In the FIH ranking Spain sits sixth, three places above France. The next meeting would be a real indicator of whether the gap is being closed, but Spain is not in 2026 World Cup Pool B. New context, thanks to the Nations Cup: South Africa steps up as an emerging rival. France beat the host narrowly 2-1 in the Cape Town final; the return to the 2026-27 Pro League means that South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland too will be on the calendar structurally.

French hockey lives between two poles: an administrative pride that goes back to 1924 and a sporting humility that has shaped the margins for a century. It is a mentality that does not loudly claim its place, but that knows it deserves that place.

A telling detail that illustrates that mentality: Hertzberger told hockey.nl after the 2025 EuroHockey about the French resources. "We have maybe a sixth of the Netherlands' budget. No money for ice baths, barely any balls, eating out is often out of the question. The technical director took the night bus to Mönchengladbach because the train was too expensive." And then: "That demands a lot of sacrifice. But somewhere I find that beautiful too." The Dutchman who sees the difference, a long cultural distance, and who attaches a kind of value to it. That is how French hockey players talk about themselves too: modest about the resources, sharp on the work that comes out of it.

The mental revolution under Dohmen has reinforced the work on that resource mismatch by pairing it with an attitude different from the old French self-irony. In his policy plan, just after his election in December 2024, Lambert demanded no longer "a little better" but a "rupture": a break with the past. That is a tone you do not often hear in French sports governance circles, where diplomacy between federations and the Ministry of Sport usually takes precedence over direct language. Dohmen adds his own Belgian mental DNA to that: "Quand je suis arrivé, j'ai directement vu qu'il y avait du potentiel. Donc, je ne savais pas si on allait le faire mais je ne peux pas dire que je suis étonné."

The Hertzberger effect lies not only in finishing technique but in the culture of not stopping. Hortensius described it as 5-0 no longer being a final score but an interim score. That is the transfer now taking place in a French forward line that historically was quickly satisfied with "a good match". Clément's late winning goal against England was no longer a stroke of luck but the natural consequence of a team that pushes on for sixty minutes.

An honest caveat: the mental revolution is young. A semi-final at the EuroHockey within two years and a runner-up finish in Santiago are promising markers, but not a senior podium. The 2026 World Cup, with three tough opponents in Pool B, will make clear whether "sérénité" holds under three weeks of intercontinental pressure.

Yves-du-Manoir: the Olympic heart

At the Stade départemental Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes, ten kilometres northwest of central Paris, an arriving fan can reach the "Le Stade" stop via Transilien line J. Above the old main stand there has hung, since the renovation of around 101 million euros for the Paris 2024 Olympics, a facade already advised by Le Corbusier back in 1924. Here Britons and Spaniards won the Olympic hockey medals of 1924, here French hockey internationals played their home matches against the Netherlands and Spain in July 2024, here the complete FFH squad has trained permanently since December 2023.

The Hockey Initiation Zone during the 2024 Olympics, set up by the FFH, received an estimated 25,000 visitors during the tournament. Many of them were people who had never held a hockey stick before. According to FFH figures the federation gradually registered more members in the two years after, although the exact figure will only be published in 2026.

The club system: two zones

The French club infrastructure is geographically concentrated in two zones. Île-de-France supplies most senior and youth clubs: Saint-Germain HC (eight-time French champion, eight-time Euro Hockey League participant), CA Montrouge (central youth academy of Clément, Curty and Sellier), Racing Club de France and Stade français. Northern France additionally supplies Lille MHC, Douai HC and HC Cauchois. Outside those two zones hockey at senior level is more thinly spread; clubs in Lyon, Bordeaux and Marseille mostly play in regional divisions.

The French Nationale 1, the highest men's level, has twelve clubs. Many of the best French hockey players, however, leave for the Belgian Honor Division or Pro League after their youth, because the level there is higher and the competition cycle aligns more closely with the international calendar. Eighty per cent of the French World Cup squad plays club hockey in Belgium. The Fédération Française de Hockey was founded in Paris on 13 November 1920 as the successor to the hockey department of the USFSA. In the 2015-16 season the federation counted 16,764 licence holders and 185 affiliated clubs, with a women's share of around 28 per cent: relatively balanced compared with many other French ball sports. Since 2020 the membership has, according to the FFH, grown steadily.

A sport in the wings of the media

Since Paris 2024 men's hockey has featured a fraction more in the French sports media. L'Équipe wrote an extensive piece on the Dohmen appointment in February 2025, La Libre picked it up for Belgian readers, RTBF interviewed Dohmen after the 2025 EuroHockey. But it is not a mainstream sport. France 24 and Eurosport-FR report during World Cups and European Championships, but between tournaments men's hockey appears mainly in the trade press and on equipe-france.fr, the site of the Comité national olympique et sportif français.

The draw and the group of death

On 17 March 2026 FIH secretary-general Marijke Fleuren drew the balls from the pot at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen. France ended up in Pool B, on Belgian soil in Wavre, together with host nation Belgium, reigning world and European champion Germany, and Asian qualification winner Malaysia. A combination immediately dubbed the "group of death", with France as ninth in the world against the FIH first (Belgium), FIH fifth (Germany) and FIH eleventh (Malaysia).

The schedule in Wavre

The full schedule was published by the FIH on 18 March 2026 and keeps France in Wavre between 15 and 19 August. On Saturday 15 August at 21:00 France plays the opening match against host nation Belgium at the Belfius Hockey Arena. Two days later, on Monday 17 August at 14:00, Malaysia follows. And on Wednesday 19 August at 17:00 the pool closes against Germany. The second group stage and the classification matches begin on Friday 21 August.

The opening match against Belgium is symbolically and emotionally charged. Dohmen coaches against his own sporting heritage, against a generation of Red Lions he watched at work for two hundred matches. Hertzberger, as long as he is formally part of the staff, coaches against the country where his Rotterdam colleagues Nicolas De Kerpel and Tom Boon are opponents. And the French players play against teammates from the Belgian Honor Division. Dohmen said about it in the FIH team profile: "The match against Belgium will be very special for me, but also for all my players, almost all of whom play in what is one of the best leagues in the world."

For Dohmen this is a tournament with three tactical faces. Against Belgium he can play out the Belgo-French club familiarity, with players who face the Red Lions weekly in their own league. Against Malaysia the task is not to underestimate, given that Malaysia beat Canada 6-1 in its own qualification tournament. Against Germany the chance of a repeat of the 2025 EuroHockey scenario is real: lead early, then hold on in the closing phase. That is what France ran into last year, and that is where Hertzberger's finishing doctrine will probably be tested in the final ten minutes. Clément put it sharply in his own FIH team profile quote: "Our goal is to challenge the two favorites, create an upset if we can, and make sure we perform at our very best against Malaysia as well."

What makes this World Cup special

The intermediate round, for the teams that finish first or second in their pool, forms the second group phase. For France it realistically means a third place in Pool B, with a classic 9-16 classification phase as a result. A second place (and thereby a cross-over) requires an upset: at least one of the two wins against Belgium or Germany, and certainty against Malaysia. The World Cup ends on Sunday 30 August 2026 in Wavre with the men's final; for France realistically on or before 22 August, in the classification phase.

The three main goals Lambert formulated in the wake of the Dohmen appointment were a showing at the 2026 World Cup and at the LA 2028 Olympics. A cross-over at the World Cup would mean the first medal haul in 88 years (after the Olympic fourth places of 1920 and 1936). A better position than ninth on the FIH ranking, together with Olympic qualification for LA 2028, is more realistic. Bear in mind: France is not automatically qualified for LA 2028 as of 2024. A good 2026 World Cup yields FIH points that count directly towards the ranking criterion for Olympic qualification. And thanks to the Nations Cup title the 2026-27 Pro League cycle begins just after the World Cup, with matches against the Netherlands, Australia, India and Argentina that will test the level structurally.

1. Dohmen on the bench. For Belgian viewers the most piquant spectacle. A man with 481 caps for the Red Lions warming up their main rival for exactly the match against himself on 15 August. His analysis of a Belgian hockey DNA is internal; for France it becomes his acid test.

2. Hertzberger in the dug-out. Alongside Sala. The "meilleur attaquant du monde", now in a blazer instead of a match shirt. Watch his body language at French attacking moments: an affirming gesture at a missed chance, no remonstration at a mistake. His coaching style is, according to hockey.nl "an energy shovel, not an order barker".

3. Charlet's penalty corner routine. At every penalty corner opportunity for France, look first at Charlet's run to the circle. He rarely releases immediately; the run-up is a tactical weapon, with fakes and delay. At the 2025 EuroHockey he scored four penalty corner goals, in Santiago five and at the Nations Cup eight (top scorer of the tournament). His recent form is therefore no isolated fact.

4. Clément's first ten minutes. The striker of Les Bleus has the mental sense of the moment that parents pass on to their children: scoring in the first ten minutes sets up the match. In Santiago against Poland France went 3-0 up in the second quarter of an hour; in friendlies Clément seeks the opening blow.

5. Goyet's penalty corner deflection. At penalty corners the captain does not always operate as a drag flicker but as a deflector on the incoming ball. Against the Netherlands in the EuroHockey semi-final he scored that way. It is a role division you do not often see at captain level.

6. Xavier's first passes out of defence. Six feet tall, pace and composure. He was Best Player at the 2023 Junior World Cup and is in his fourth season at Racing Club de Bruxelles. His long passes are already a weapon at senior level.

7. Martinache and Sellier: the new axis of the French game. Malo Martinache (19 years old, Lille MHC) was Best Young Player at both the 2025 EuroHockey and the 2026 Nations Cup. Corentin Sellier (24 years old) was voted Player of the Tournament at the Nations Cup. Both are in the definitive twenty; their role at the World Cup is the indicator of whether the "Dohmen project" reaches beyond one tournament.

8. Saunier's reflex on a high ball. The Best Goalkeeper of the 2025 EuroHockey is not physically the biggest goalkeeper in the tournament, but his reflexes on deflected balls from the zone between seven and fifteen metres are striking. Against the Netherlands on 14 August 2025 he saved three attempts in the opening phase.

9. The first second of France-Germany on Wednesday 19 August, 17:00. Two 2-0 leads that France gave away against Germany in sixteen months (the 2025 EuroHockey and match memories enough). How does the team start this time? With a conservative first fifteen minutes or with aggressive transition?

10. The opening at 21:00 on Saturday 15 August. France-Belgium at the Belfius Hockey Arena. Wavre lies an hour's drive from many French northern border areas. For Lille MHC and Saint-Germain HC supporters this is practically an away match on their own street. The French cheering power is tested again for the first time since Yves-du-Manoir 2024. Keep an eye on the stands in the closing phase, especially at penalty corner moments.

France plays its pool matches in Wavre between Saturday 15 and Wednesday 19 August 2026, at the Belfius Hockey Arena. The tournament closes on Sunday 30 August with the men's final, in that same stadium.

The margins are thin and the history is long. Three roads lie open. The first is a pool elimination behind Germany and Belgium, with a third place and a 9-16 classification phase as the result; that would be a disappointment after the Nations Cup title and the EuroHockey semi-final, but at the same time a repeat of the Paris 2024 Olympic outcome. The second is an upset: at least one win over Belgium or Germany, plus the three points against Malaysia, gives a second place and thereby a cross-over. The third is an unexpectedly poor result: a loss to Malaysia and elimination in the pool. Realistically the scenario lies between one and two, with the second place as the real ambition and the third place as the likely outcome.

Whatever happens, this World Cup is a waypoint in an eight-year cycle that Lambert set out in December 2024 and that Dohmen has shaped since. "Briller à la Coupe du monde à Wavre en 2026 et aux Jeux de Los Angeles en 2028." The Nations Cup title of June 2026 has already partly realised that vision, with promotion to the 2026-27 Pro League as a tangible outcome. The junior World Cup medals of 2013, 2021 and 2023 stand in display cases at CA Montrouge, Lille MHC and the FFH headquarters at Yves-du-Manoir. Whether that senior breakthrough is celebrated on 30 August 2026 or postponed for another four years will be decided over the course of three August weeks in Wavre.

For a paradox nation that founded the world federation on its own soil 102 years ago and then played on the margins for a century, this is the most interesting World Cup in four decades.

A-sources (official and primary)

• FFH definitive World Cup squad, 3 August 2026
• FFH Les Bleus win the 2026 Nations Cup, 21 June 2026
• FIH squad announcement France World Cup 2026
• FIH team profile France World Cup 2026, 28 July 2026
• FIH mid-year ranking update, 29 June 2026
• Equipe-de-France.fr World Cup page Les Bleus men
• FFH official announcement Dohmen, 21 February 2025
• FIH Santiago World Cup Qualifier match report France-Poland
• FIH World Cup 2026 draw, 17 March 2026
• FFH Clément Rising Star 2021-22

B-sources (analyses and interviews)

• NOS Hertzberger becomes head coach of HC Rotterdam, 31 May 2026
• La Libre reprint of L'Équipe on the Dohmen appointment, 7 February 2025
• DH/Les Sports+ Dohmen analysis 2025 EuroHockey semi-final, 14 August 2025
• RTBF Dohmen interview after the 2025 EuroHockey, 18 August 2025
• Hockey.nl Hertzberger on his experience at France, August 2025
• Hockey.nl Hortensius on good friend Hertzberger, 16 August 2025
• Olympics.com portrait Clément, January 2025
• FIH Dohmen Nations Cup interview, Malaysia
• Sportskeeda on the 5-3 France-Argentina at the 2018 World Cup
• France 24 on the Yves-du-Manoir renovation
• Inside The Games on the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey legacy

C-sources (background and context)

• Wikipedia FR Equipe de France de hockey sur gazon
• Wikipedia EN France men's national field hockey team
• Wikipedia EN 2025 Men's EuroHockey Championship
• Wikipedia EN 2023 Men's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup
• Wikipedia FR FFH (Fédération Française de Hockey)
• Wikipedia EN 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup
• FFH 100 years of history