French esports organisation Team Vitality has appointed ex-Olympic handball player Bruno Martini as its Esports General Manager.
Martini was previously the General Manager of Paris Saint-Germain’s handball team for eight years. During that time he managed to secure 17 titles whilst also setting various ‘national and international records’, according to the release.
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The two-time World Men’s Handball Champion is expected to ‘lead the performance infrastructure across all of Team Vitality’s rosters’. Martini will also oversee the organisation’s player performance philosophy and programmes.
Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, the President & Co-founder of Team Vitality, commented: “We take performance incredibly seriously at Team Vitality, of course in-game, but our players are professional competitors, and to perform at the highest possible level we need to give them every advantage.
“I was looking for former professional sportsmen with experience in management, and I couldn’t have hoped to find someone with a resume as impressive as Bruno’s. I cannot wait to see what he brings to Team Vitality.”
Martini, who is based in Paris, will work across both Team Vitality’s headquarters, V.Hive, and the organisation’s performance centre, V.Performance. In addition, he will travel with the team’s players to major events, whilst also spending time in Berlin with Team Vitality’s LEC and LFL teams.
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Team Vitality’s new Esports General Manager added: “There are so many important factors to performance, team spirit, fitness, mental health support, etc. and what’s essential is that our players are convinced that this will make them play better, and play better as a team.
“This is my first role in esports, and I was hugely impressed by the Team Vitality brand and the infrastructure they already have in place. I’m very excited for this new challenge of bringing my experience in building performance structures around professional sportsmen to esports players.”
Esports Insider says: The appointment of Martini continues to highlight Team Vitality’s willingness to invest in health and performance across its entire structure. Just this year alone, Team Vitality has partnered with Aldi in France, Garmin and Incept to boost its health and performance output. It will certainly be interesting to see how Martini can adapt his practices to tailor to esports and whether he can bring success to the organisation with his methods.