OGC Nice Côte d’Azur loses one of its key players. Barbara Moretto will play in Nantes next season.
A tough blow for OGC Nice Côte d’Azur Handball! Barbara Moretto has indeed signed with Nantes for next season. A very bad news for the Aiglonnes. An undisputed starter as a right back, Moretto is one of Nice’s standout players. A three-time French international, she delivered an outstanding performance this weekend by scoring seven goals during Nice’s victory against Plan-de-Cuques (28-25). This season, the Béarn native is Nice’s second top scorer, with 4.6 goals per match. Thanks to the effectiveness of her left arm, she reaches a 64.6% shooting success rate, which makes her departure even harder for the staff to accept. The news of this transfer was announced just before OGCN’s very important game on Wednesday on the court of Paris 92 (4th in the championship). Barbara Moretto had already announced her departure to the management and her teammates a few days ago. The Nice management will therefore need to find a solution in the coming weeks to find Moretto’s replacement for next season.
Lead Nice to the play-offs
Coming from Dijon during the off-season, Barbara Moretto will spend only one season on the Côte d’Azur. Despite her departure, the Béarnaise is determined to have a great end to the season with OGCN, as she expressed after the match against Plan-de-Cuques: “Our goal is to qualify for the play-offs. I hope we won’t finish eighth and that we will secure the fifth or sixth place. If we can secure Europe, that would be great, but we want to secure the play-offs first. With this great team, I hope we can finish fifth or sixth.” There is no doubt that Barbara Moretto will want to end her journey in Nice in the best way possible before heading to Nantes. This season, Nantes ranks third in the championship, and they are also competing in the EHF European League, where they are well-positioned to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition.
