This is me: Allison Pineau

THIS IS ME: Allison Pineau

“A jack of all trades.”

Now, that is an expression that would sum up best my career, and maybe even my life. Right from the off, I was interested in a lot of things. Sports, mainly, but not only. And that translated to my later self.

I will not say that my life as a kid was a tough one, but that is all thanks to my mum. She was a single mum, after she divorced my father when I was seven. As a caregiver, she would give everything for her three kids. Money, but also time and devotion. She had very strong values, such as working hard, keeping faith, and remaining true to yourself. This might sound a little bit cliché, but they are still with me, all these years after.

Both my parents came from Guadeloupe, a faraway island, before I was born. I barely knew my dad, especially since he passed away more than 10 years ago, and I rarely talk about him. I did not know him, that’s all. So, my mum did all of the hard work and, if you ask me, she did a pretty good one. She might not have had all of the money in the world, but she did everything she could so we could be happy.

And very early in my life, one thing would very much make me happy: sports. And no matter which one. Very early on, I could see myself having a professional athlete career and everybody would predict that I would have a future in athletics.

My parents came from the same island as Marie-José Pérec, the famous 1992 and 1996 Olympic champion on the 400 meters. We both had a similar body, we both came from the same island of Guadeloupe, and the link was therefore easier to build. But things did not turn out this way, partly because of a man named Daniel Deherme.

I met him first at the sports summer camp run by the city I used to live in, Aubervilliers. This is where we spent most of our summers, and I have very fond memories of it. Tennis, football, athletics, you name it, there was a sport for everyone. And I tried try them all, just for the sake of trying.

And it soon became obvious that, well, I had some physical qualities that could lead me to a high level. I was tall, thin, run fast and jump high. But it was another quality that Daniel Deherme, who was looking after us at the camp, spotted: “Big hands” (no, really!).

“You could use them at handball,” he said. “You should come and have a try.”

It was not until my second summer with him that he finally convinced me.

So I went to a training, once again just for the sake of trying. There was no apprehension that day, just the will of have fun with some other kids. But since I entered the building, since I played on this playground for the first time, I never left handball. There was something to it, the physical side, but also the tactics, the fact that you have to think and that without wisdom, you cannot be a great player.

As I told you, I was certain that I would have a professional future in sports, but if you had told me handball, I would not have believed you.

So, one thing led to another, and soon, I was drafted at the Issy-Paris academy. This was a good compromise, as I would have the opportunity to progress in one of the best academies in the country, but also not to be too far away from home. When you are 15 or 16, it is not always easy to leave home, and being able to visit my mum every now and again, when I needed it, was really important in my academy choice.

The following years were a little bit of a whirlwind: First game in the third division aged 16, first game in the first division at 17, and then first professional contract with Issy-Paris at 18. It felt like being in a tunnel at high-speed. But at that age, you do not think, you just let things come to you and try to make the most of them.

But I probably wasn’t ready for what came next.

A year later, in 2007, I was playing the home World Championship with France. Playing for my country has always been a kid’s dream. To be able to represent your country, to try to raise the French flag on a podium, it kind of reminds me of when I was watching Marie-José Pérec on television as a child. So, to play a World Championship, at home, is something huge, even though things did not turn out the way we wanted them to.

The whirlwind became even crazier when I was elected IHF World Player of the Year in 2009. No French player had ever achieved it before, and I feel like it put women’s handball in the spotlight in France.

Looking back, I admit it was not easy to keep things together. I could have gone crazy and thought I had made it at just 20. But I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted medals and titles, and I had not won them yet. My mum’s education has been key throughout my career, and this was one of the moments where it served me right. She always told me that I had to work to achieve, that I had to keep focus and not let anyone distract me from my goals. So, I kept on playing.

I could hear the rumours and the whispers, though: “Allison has become arrogant.” “She thinks she has become someone else.”

It felt like, because I was ambitious and saying: ‘I wanted more,’ my words were misinterpreted and that I was judged. While it might have hurt me at some point, I became even stronger thanks to them.

In 2012, I decided to leave France. After all, one of my career goals was to win the EHF Champions League, and it felt that I could not do it, even with Metz, which was the best club at the time. Early in the year, I felt like I was ready. Even though I had suffered a knee injury at the 2011 World Championship, I decided to join Valcea, in Romania.

Now, for a 23-year-old, to move to Romania, it was something like a bold move. I wanted to play with the best players, give myself a chance to win the Champions League, but it was clearly about getting out of my comfort zone. I had travelled a lot in my personal life, but this was completely different, really like jumping into the unknown. After a few months, my friend Amandine Leynaud suffered an injury, and I really felt like I was on my own, trying to win my place at every training.

Things were not easy, on many levels, in that first year away from France. But it made me a better player and it helped me grow as a person as well. Since then, every opportunity has brought its ups and downs.

In 2013, we had an amazing season with Vardar. The season ended on a high, playing the first ever Women’s EHF FINAL4. We knew that it was history in the making. It had witnessed the first edition of the Men’s EHF FINAL4, but to think that women’s handball could generate such excitement was amazing.

Every year since, my aim has been to play the event again. Sadly, things did not evolve the way I wanted with Vardar. Despite signing a contract extension, the owner decided he wanted me to leave, something he admitted as being an error a few years later. This was one of the many times in my career when I experienced injustice. It happened to me in Brest as well when I came back to France in 2016. I stayed there three years, but this is not a time of my career about which I have too much to say.

Apart from one thing, though.

As I suffered an ankle injury in my time in Brest, I decided to get surgery to fix it in the summer of ’17. In my head, things were clear. I was going to miss the 2017 IHF World Championship, maybe the whole of the following season, but I could not keep things going that way. But as soon as the surgery was over, my goal was clear: I wanted to play the World Championship and give myself every chance to do so.

I did. I did train hard, multiple times a day. There were tears and sweat and pain. But it paid off. In Hamburg, 17 December 2017, France won their second gold medal at a World Championship, and I was a part of it. Now, that was a special feeling. The first gold medal with France, after the surgery and its recovery, the fact that I really played a role, this title will remain with me forever.

I do not think people can actually realise how it feels, to be on top of the world representing your country. Not only were we on top of the world, but we climbed at the top of Europe the following year as well.

People often ask me which title I enjoyed most. Both are different. The injury and the rehab in 2017 made things special, but to be able to lift a trophy in front of your families and friends, there are no words to describe it. And for me, personally, the scenario of the final made it even harder. I got a red card for a foul that I did not commit and, there again, it felt like all the injustice in the world was landing on my shoulders. It felt like I had been deprived of the privilege of playing the final. Even though the title, perhaps the most special of all, was there, it felt different to me.

And when you dig up all these memories, it makes sense to talk about what will come after handball. Even though no-one knows what the future holds in store, the current season should be my last one.

And I feel at peace with that. There are still a lot of things waiting for me, even though I don’t know exactly how things will work out.

I might be a manager for a club, I might try to create a job building bridges between finance, which I am currently studying, and sports. I might keep giving lectures and conferences. I might make some TV appearances… I imagine my post career as I pictured my whole life.

Many sports, many passions, nine different clubs across five countries. As I told you, a jack of all trades.

Allison Pineau
October 2023

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