A year ago, (almost) nobody heard of him. Since, France’s Mehdi Filali, 18 years old, impresses everyone with his maturity and serenity. Finalist in Paris, he won the Rabat Premier League last month by beating the World N°1, Germany’s Horne, in the final. In Novi Sad (May 10th-13th), he will compete in his first Senior European championships (+84 kg). Yann Baillon, the French national team head coach, tells us about the new French phenomenon. The new Seydina Balde ?

By Ludovic Mauchien

Photos : K-Photos

« To compare him to Seydina is maybe jumping the gun ! On intrinsic qualities, Seydina had exceptional qualities. Mehdi has a lot of qualities but it’s also a lot of work. Intrinsically, he has a little less physical qualities than Seydina but, on the other hand, he is very, very good technically. He has an excellent technical background. It’s a boy who is very, very smart. He is very, very mature, he is very powerful, he takes few shots, he is very safe when he fights... He has a very intelligent Karate, « I touch but I do not get touch ».

He has an impressive serenity ! He manages stress very well. He simply does his karate. But he still has many, many, many more for us. He can express himself much more than he does. As soon as he drops a technique, it is an impressive one, and he does not do so much ! (he smiles). So he still needs to free himself. It’s normal at his age. What he does is already exceptional ! Exceptional !

We still need to give him meat. He made good performances But we need to see if, in a big Senior championship, he is able to through a transition. He must, because the category is quite difficult. There are boys who have been there for a long time and who hold the category. I think of Horne for example.

Mehdi managed to tickle them, to beat them, on Karate 1, competitions with a stake but not with as much pressure as an European championship. We will see if he is able to overcome this challenge. Personally, I think so. This is the future of the category. Now, it’s up to him to prove it !

I don’t know if we can compare him to someone in terms of audacity at his age, he is only 18, he was still Junior last year and he already won a Karate 1, beating running World champions ! He fought the best ! He fought against Ganjzadeh in the Paris final, he beats Horne twice in Paris and in the Rabat final. He did’nt meet only Only Erkan but it seems that he will quit ».