Toulouse. Jef Lettens has once again taken a step forward
At 31, the Belgian international is enjoying his most successful season with Fenix Toulouse but also with the Belgian selection which will take part in the World Cup for the first time in 2023.
The war in Ukraine has repercussions everywhere. In all areas. Until… Belgian handball which was offered qualification for the next 2023 World Cup in Poland and Sweden without playing its play-off match against the Russians, suspended by international sanctions which strike even in sport. The Belgium of Jef Lettens, the Fenix goalkeeper, therefore provided precious sesame for the planetary meeting. “A great first for our sport in Belgium, we know that we owe it to this unprecedented situation”, confides the Toulouse goalkeeper. “But we take that with a lot of pride. The objective will be to do well, not to come just to see”, warns a Jef Lettens who, at 31, savors this privilege of participating in the great planetary celebration of handball. “I meet so many players who have been playing these major tournaments since I have been playing in France that it necessarily makes you want”, slips the one who is having a very good season in the Toulouse jersey.
In the Top 3 goalkeepers
Become essential in the cage of the Fenix, a major pawn of the defensive block, Jef Lettens is today in the top three of the best goalkeepers of the Starligue, placed between the Chambérien Portner (272 saves at 34%) and the Nimois Desbonnet (204 stops at 31%) with his counter 229 stops in the league at 33%. He is also not far from achieving his best season since his arrival in the Starligue in 2016. “Yes, personally, I believe so”, underlines the one who has shown consistency and who admits to having “crossed a milestone by being more decisive, because it’s also my role to bring performance to my position. It’s been a very successful season but that’s no coincidence. We work really well in this team.”
He also sent himself there so well that he extended until at least 2025. “There is a good atmosphere around and within our team. And when we see our staff, that of the academy, with former club players in place, it’s a good sign, it shows that the players like pursue their careers here. It’s the same for me. There are values in this club that I share and I in turn want to pass them on by registering for the long term.” In the meantime, there is a great season to complete and a fifth European place to preserve. “If we get there, it’s because we will have deserved it”, discovered Jef Lettens. And there, the repercussions of the war in Ukraine will have nothing to do with it.