BERLIN — The FIBA group stage has concluded, and France, Belgium and the United States are the only nations that remain with a perfect record. Belgium had three good challenges to prepare them for the final phase. The US have swept, sure, but they looked very beatable in an already-infamous matchup with Italy. France were the most convincing of the unbeaten, winning their three games by a combined 127 points (for anyone who doesn’t have a calculator handy, that’s an average winning margin of 42.33).
France’s closest game came against Korea, where they only won by 26 points. Korea had the lead at the end of the first quarter, but never really threatened Les Bleues. France won the second quarter 19-6 and tied things up with a ribbon early into the second half.
France are far ahead from the rest of the world, but they also haven’t faced a big challenge yet. Their first three games, however, have been excellent, and this level of talent isn’t new or surprising. At the 2023 EuroBasket Tournament, they left with a bronze, losing only to gold medalists Belgium in their semi final bout. At the 2024 Olympics they won silver, narrowly losing to the US in the gold medal match 66-67.
At the 2025 EuroBasket they missed out on a medal, but they were without Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga. Williams and Malonga are WNBA All-Stars, and Johannes is a fan favorite with a memorable style of play. France has always been a strong team, but there’s no question that these three are their best players.
So, it may be befuddling to see Johannes and Malonga come off the bench. These young guns — the team’s leading scorers — are healthy and combining for 49 points in 59.5 minutes per game.
Malonga has been the least efficient from deep, at 50%. At the end of the team’s first training session, she took the time to speak with The IX Sports. She casually drained three after three but insisted that her laid back attitude should not mislead the fact that she was excited for the World Cup:
“I’m really, really excited,” she said. “I think it’s gonna be a really great competition. I’ve waited for it all year. So I’m just excited that it’s around the corner now. I think we have a great team and I’m just really looking forward to what we can do.”
These generations seem to have a way of figuring themselves out. Everything about Malonga is unique — she is a unicorn in the WNBA and FIBA circuits, and she happens to be playing at the same time as Johannes, an artist, and Williams, a well-rounded, defensive juggernaut.
“It’s great talent but also great people,” Malonga said about her generation. “I think we really want to be good together. We’re really great competitors and winning is really important for us. I think that’s what differentiates our group from others. It’s just like, we will do whatever it takes to win.”
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And she is doing whatever it takes as she comes off the bench. France head coach Jean Aime Toupane has opted for defense and chemistry in his starting unit, with long time servant Marieme Badiane taking France’s tip-offs. She is a proven piece that Toupane and France can rely on, and the team leans on her experience to get out to good starts and keep the game close and defensive early on.
“I think I’m the experienced one,” Badiane said to The IX Sports. “I’m the one who, I would say, regulates everything. Like, I’m the one who [players] can talk to, who talks on the courts. I think my coach is expecting a lot on defense with me and, yeah, that’s my role.”
Toupane’s vision
Toupane’s system and strategy might seem odd from the outside, but he knows what it takes to win.
“Our first half was really great I found,” Toupane said after France’s defeat over Hungary. “To set the tone defensively and offensively. That’s why we got confident and in the second half we were relaxed. This type of game here is really hard for the players to stay on the same level the whole game. I’m really happy to see our first win, because starting a competition with a win is always a good thing.”
He understood the human nature side of his nation’s 46-point dismantling of Hungary. It’s hard to be unhappy with a win of that margin. After another strong performance against Korea — a mere 26 point win this time — Toupane still felt the team could do better.
“We needed to be more aggressive to come back into the game,” he said after the game concluded. Toupane did, however, perk up again after France beat Nigeria by 55 points, stating that he could see the team had a “common trust” on the floor together.
Toupane is, evidently, happy with how things have gone so far. France’s results have been undeniable, and Toupane seems confident in his starting unit, rotation and defensive output. He often credits his starts and his team’s trust — France have been winning games early, which can’t happen without a strong, winning start.
Bench bolsterers
Toupane’s bench combination of Johannes and Malonga has offensive freedom, and the two use every part of it. Johannes has scored 17 points in every game. In a tournament like this, with added pressure, Johannes’ consistency has been impressive.
“It’s never easy,” Johannes said to The IX Sports. “I think I’m just trying to give my best every time I play. It’s something special playing for the national team, so it’s always an honor playing for this team.”
Johannes made these statements after their win against Korea, where she shot 4-7 from three, good for 57.1%. For the World Cup as a whole, she’s shooting 52%.
Captain Williams is shooting 55% from deep herself, with her country at 48.5% on 33.7 attempts. That is a devastating barrage to come up against. Seeing so many shots being launched over your defense — and half of them going in — is a recipe for a long night.
“I feel really good,” Williams said to The IX Sports after the team’s opening win against Hungary. “I also love that it wasn’t actually a perfect game. Maybe it looked like that from the outside, but I see a lot of things we can still get better at. So it’s great that we can win by 40 still knowing it’s not our best.”
They looked like medalists, even if Williams identified room for improvement. She’s a measured leader and she credits her team’s success so far to the posture and composure of the group.
“I think it comes from trust,” Williams said, when asked about how and why the team functions well together. “I think it comes from knowing that we have a deep team, like we have a deep roster, we have a good bench, so it’s always that next-woman-up mentality. I think there’s also a confidence in knowing I can play as hard as I can for these five minutes because I know someone else is going to come in and they’re gonna match my intensity. And so that’s what comes with a lot of trust. So I think that’s where we find our strength.”
Before their game against Korea, the French players lined up for the national anthem with a team of children, as is custom at the World Cup. It was noticeable when Williams had a brief exchange with the kid by her side.
“She was cute. She told me she spoke French, and she looked so happy,” Williams told The IX Sports. “She was asking me, like, ‘what do we do during the national anthem?’ So I was telling her to do it like us.”
For Williams, that was a grounding moment in the heat of the battle.
“It just reminds us of who we’re doing it for,” she said. “And yeah, he gives you a different perspective to remember that sport brings us together.”
That togetherness and presence is a key compartment to the personality of the French team. It harkens back to Malonga’s comment of “great talent, but also great people.” Those human moments help the members of the team find that balance between competition and fun. Malonga also find that fun in her unique opportunity to play against her Seattle Storm teammates Ezi Magbegor, of Australia, and Awa Fam, of Spain.
“First, I know them, I think I know them really well so I know how to guard them, but they’re still great players,” Malonga said. “You know, this kind of player, you cannot limit them. They will score on you, for sure, so it’s just pick your poison. I think it’s gonna be really fun to play against them. We talked about it all season, like we were trash talking a little bit, but now I’m kind of glad that we have the opportunity to face each other in this tournament.”
What’s next for France?
Every great basketball team seems to carry a personality along with them, and France is no exception. They have a defensive identity and a quirky rotation, as well as expressive players that play with freedom and ease. The starting unit is able to establish the conditions of the game on the defensive end, and the back-ups are able to come on and show their artistry offensively.
Janelle Salaün has also been a critical part of what France have achieved. More importantly, she’s a big part of what they want to do and where they want to go. With great offensive stewards in Pauline Astier and Leila Lacan, as well as the playmaking from Williams and Johannes, a bigger wing to tie everything together is a necessity for the road ahead.
Salaün has a reliable corner three pointer with a high release point, which is nearly impossible to defend. And defensively, she can take on primary wing assignments and switch on to guards and bigs. She plays with optimism and a willingness to make sacrifices for her team to play wherever she is needed.
And what is needed remains somewhat unseen, as France hasn’t faced a true challenge yet. Toupane hasn’t had to find his go-to five player unit in this tournament just yet, and instead has been playing around with different arrangements. He has skillsets to tap into on the backcourt and options at the wing, but none with the versatility, size and hustle of Salaün. IF Toupane is faced with this question in the final phase, Salaün will likely be his answer at either the three or the four.
Basketball has gone fairly global — gone are the days where the best a team could do was be the runner-up to the US. France is one of the teams that can make a seriously deep run this year, and the experiences of individual players over the past few years has prepared them for these moments.
Now, it’s just a matter of putting it together for Toupane, as well as continued hustle and sacrifice from the roster. Malonga and Johannes have fully bought in to being deadly weapons off the bench, Badiane’s entire role is predicated on sacrifice, Salaün brings the dedication, and Williams has shown a propensity to put her nation first, which only grows stronger in a role as captain. Now, it’s just a matter of them being themselves and things breaking right as the tournament presses on.
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