France are making their debut this year in the 2017 FIVB Men’s World Grand Champions Cup. After an utterly amazing performance in 2015 when they captured the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League title with an impressive sweep of their Group 2 matches and an even more striking appearance in the Group 1 Final Six in Rio de Janeiro, France added another World League medal in 2016, finishing third with a 3-0 sweep of Italy in the bronze medal game and topped it all off with their second World League in three years in the 2017 edition when they beat hosts Brazil in the final.

They had previously capped their brilliant 2015 season with the gold medal at the European Championship in Sofia. That performance came after finishing runners-up in Group 2 in 2014 when they lost to hosts Australia in the final At the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship they topped a second round pool ahead of hosts Poland and progressed all the way to the third-place match, before losing in straight sets to Germany.

France have been competing in the World League ever since the inaugural edition in 1990 and conttinuously since 1999. In 2006 they finished second to Brazil but had their share of disappointment in subsequent seasons. In 2009, they narrowly missed making the Final Six, falling at the last hurdle to Argentina. They suffered another setback in 2010 when they again missed the finals and finished 12th.

France competeted in the Olympic Games for the fourth time in Rio 2016, finishing 9th. Their best ever Olympic performance was a 8th place in Seoul 1988.