2023-12-03 13:33:21
Bangkok (AFP) – Teqball, a young discipline at the crossroads of football and table tennis, concluded its first World Championships outside Europe on Sunday in Thailand, with a record number of participants and Ronaldinho as a distinguished guest.
Published on: 03/12/2023 – 2:33 p.m. Modified on: 03/12/2023 – 2:31 p.m.
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“I played something similar when I was a player, on a slightly different table,” the 2002 world champion, who became an ambassador for the sport, recalled to AFP.
Beautiful game and spectacle: teqball rides on the image of the old Parisian with the legendary touch of the ball, to find its audience among new generations.
Around a table with curved edges, two players or two pairs compete in a sort of ball tennis, without being able to use their hands or arms.
Standing over their heads to smash or serve, the “teqers” compete in flexibility and dexterity to win the games in two winning sets.
Created in the 2010s in Hungary, teqball now boasts more than a million practitioners, including a thousand athletes gravitating towards international competitions.
“It’s the story of three Hungarians who wanted to continue playing football without injuries”, that is to say by avoiding contact, explains Viktor Huszar, one of the co-creators.
Former Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho during a teqball exhibition match, on the sidelines of the World Cup in Bangkok, December 2, 2023 © Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
The businessman managed to establish contact with Ronaldinho via the Dutch coach Henk ten Kate, who worked at MTK Budapest and FC Barcelona, as an assistant.
The inventors of the sport patented the design of the curved table, making it impossible for companies other than their own, in a monopoly situation, to produce it.
“Sport is a business”, notes the dream of a Clasico between Barça and Real Madrid in teqball version.
The president of the International Teqball Federation (Fiteq), Viktor Huszar, during the Worlds in Bangkok, December 3, 2023 © Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
“to manage all alone”
Teqball has attracted certain football stars, such as Neymar or Sadio Mané, seen on social networks around the famous table, considered a good exercise to work on their technique.
Professional clubs have also joined the movement.
“In teqball, you have to vary the touches. Footballers don’t really like that, they don’t want to do left foot when they are right-handed, or change body parts, they hate it”, laughs Hugo Rabeux, who hosted some sessions with Ligue 1 teams, such as Strasbourg and Metz.
This pioneer of teqball in France, 34 years old, is one of the few to make a living from his sport, thanks to around ten sponsors and tournament prizes.
“Anyone who doesn’t get results can’t make a living from it. You have to fend for yourself,” explains the former defensive midfielder who played in CFA2 (5th division).
Rabeux won the individual bronze medal in Bangkok.
Organized in the Thai capital, with DJs and light shows, the first Worlds outside Europe attracted a record number of participants, 211 including 80 women, from 61 different countries, according to the organizers.
Some discovered the sport very recently, like Cameroonian Marie Letitia Togodne Yaoussou, who took up it four months before the competition.
Frenchman Hugo Rabeux during the Teqball World Championships, in Bangkok, December 2, 2023 © Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
She was poached for her skills as a table tennis player: “I had never played football before,” smiles the 23-year-old young woman, who works in an auditing firm in Douala.
In the big port city, she has to train alone, due to a lack of other practitioners. “When the sport develops, people will come a little more,” she hopes.
© 2023 AFP
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