Bertrand Roiné
Bertrand Roiné is a French-born Qatari former handball player who played for first the French national team and later for the Qatari national team. At the 2011 World Championship he won gold medals with France.
National team
Roine played for the French national team from 2005 onwards. He represented them at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.At the 2011 World Championship he won gold medals with 'Les Experts'.
He switched allegiance to Qatar in 2013 and played his first match for the Qatari national team in October 2013. His first tournament with Qatar was the 2014 Asian Championship where Qatar won gold medals.
He was part of the Qatar team that won silver medals at the 2015 World Championship in Qatar, the first World Championship medal for both Qatar and for any Asian team. The result was however controversial due to the many naturalized players of Qatar, of which Roiné was one of them. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, only four of the 17 players in the squad were native to Qatar. The practice was criticised by Austrian goalkeeper after his team's loss to Qatar in the round of 16, saying "It like playing against a world selection team" and "I think it is not the sense of a world championship." Furthermore there were claims of favourable refereering for the hosts. After the final whistle of their semifinal against Poland, the Polish players showed their discontent by ironically applauding the three referees.
He also represented Qatar at the 2019 World Championship.
Club career
Roiné played for Angers Noyant HB from 1998 to 2004 where he joined Dunkerque HGL. Two years later he joined Chambéry Savoie HB.in 2012 he signed for Al-Duhail in Qatar. He won the Qatar Handball League in 2013.
He retired in 2021.