How Frenchman Victor Charlet Has Enhanced his Hockey Credentials in HIL!

Victor Charlet has always carved out a towering presence in the deep defence for the France men’s hockey team – the Les Bleus captain has built a strong reputation at the club level while playing for Belgium club Waterloo Ducks – at the ongoing 6th Men’s Hockey India League, the 31-year-old deep defender and drag-flicker has only enhanced his reputation as a high utility player for Team Gonasika.

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The 6ft 5 inches burly fullback, who was initially not part of the HIL auctions and was summoned as a late replacement after the troika of Tom Boon, Jereoen Hertzeberger, and Mustapha Cassiem withdrew, has been one the key support pillars of Team Gonasika – he has been pivotal in nullifying the opposition raids with timely retrievals, strong game awareness, and shrewd tackling.

Charlet was at his best in the league opener against Delhi SG Pipers – a game where he scored to put his side ahead after they had to do the catching up after leaking an early goal – his side fought hard against tabletoppers Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers before going down by the odd goal in three. The two-time World-Cupper and Olympian dished out an eye-catching performance against Hyderabad Toofans – they posted their first league win and deservingly won the Player of the Match award.

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The Frenchman rose through the junior ranks and shot into international prominence at the 2013 Junior Men’s World Cup at New Delhi, where France surprised many be reaching the final and subsequently losing to Germany. He made his senior international debut wearing the number 10 jersey as part of a Two Test series against Great Britain at Lille in March 2014 – a match France played out a goalless draw and subsequently drew the second Test match 3-3.

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Charlet represented France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the national side had finished 11th – he had donned the national jersey at the 2018 and 2023 World Cups held in India. The Frenchman underpinned his hockey excellence emerging as the joint second top goal-scorer at the 2023 World Cup scoring 8 goals alongside Tom Boon, and Jip Janssen behind top goal-scorer Jeremy Hayward. France had finished 13th in the World Cup.

Charlet made a lot of people sit up and take notice of him at the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium, Rourkela during the 2023 World Cup when he scored a sensational four-goal second half hat-trick after they had conceded an early goal. He gave France the lead thrice before settling for a 5-5 draw against Argentina, who scored the match-leveller in the dying seconds of the match.

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Charlet made meaningful contributions at the 2018 World Cup, where France had finished 8th among 16 teams – he scored twice – once against New Zealand and Argentina. “Charlet is a very under-rated player. He is not talked about as one of the top drag-flickers only because he plays for France. He is a solid deep defender as well. Had had played for another country other than France, he may well have been regarded as an absolute elite drag-flicker. We know what he is capable of,” says former England & Great Britain men’s team coach and Team Gonasika coach Paul Revington in an exclusive chat with Hockey Passion.

Needless to say, Charlet has been a fantastic servant of France hockey, having made 158 international appearances and scoring 93 goals.