Having Earvin Ngapeth in the team is always good but sometimes it can be bad. The legendary Bernardo Rezende ’Bernardinho’ became another coach in the group of many who found himself in a situation of having to calm down the French player who could not keep his nerves composed in the match against Germany in the 2021 CEV Men’s Volleyball European Championship.
Ngapeth lost his nerves and got into a heated discussion with László Adler from Hungary, the umpire of the match between France and Germany at the CEV Men’s EuroVolley 2021 in Tampere (Finland). In the second set, at 14-4 for Germany, its member Tobias Krick stepped in to serve. The first referee pointed out that Ngapeth did not rotate well, awarding a point to France’s rival. Then Krick served again and, once again, the referee found that Ngapeth was positioned incorrectly on the court, punishing ’Les Bleus’ with one more point.
The outside hitter could not withstand it anymore. He spoke very sharply with Adler, not wanting to calm down. In the end, Ngapeth exceeded the referee’s limits of acceptable behavior and got a red card. That meant that France lost one more point and the scoreboard showed 17-4 for Germany. The Olympic champion lost this set but won the match.
