The Engel & Völkers French Open, under the umbrella of the French Polo Federation, brings together fourteen top-level teams over three weeks. Seventeen intense days where the Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly becomes the largest European meeting of this discipline with more than a thousand polo horses on site. A technical and eventful feat also made possible thanks to the support of clubs and sports organizations based in the Île-de-France region.
For the past three years, the Engel & Völkers French Open has taken on a new sporting dimension, becoming the most competitive polo competition in September in Europe. This year, a record number of fourteen teams will take part in the Open. Teams from Germany, Great Britain, Argentina, Switzerland, and France, who, to ensure their competitiveness, have hired top Argentinean pros, the kind of players that are seen at the end of the year in the most important tournament in the world: the Argentine Open.
This exceptional line-up bodes well for some stunning games, as is often the case in September in Chantilly. Games open to the public during the week with, in parallel, other tournaments such as the Castel Trophy (6-8 goals) or the French Women‘s Open (13 to 18 September) which, once again, attracts some of the best female players in the world. Three weeks not to be missed under any circumstances, to discover polo in a relaxed way during the week or the great event that is the day of the finals, on Sunday 18 September, with its village, food-trucks, stands and animations, which will be open from 16 September.
Winner of the 2021 French Open, La Magdeleine will come back to defend its title with its two Argentine cracks Tito Ruiz Guiñazu and Facundo Llorente (1st and 2nd left). © R&B Presse
More about the participants:
Last year, French team La Magdeleine triumphed in Chantilly with one of the top players of the Argentine Open, Tito Ruiz Guiñazu.
Seven Argentine Open players in Chantilly!
To defend this title, he will be joined in Chantilly by other players from the Argentine Open: Diego Cavanagh, a member of the La Dolfina team in 2021 alongside Adolfo Cambiaso, will be in Chantilly with Brittany Polo; Bautista Bayugar, 26, considered in Argentina as one of the aces of tomorrow where he has evolved within the Alegria Fish Creek team, in Chantilly he will play for Los Dragones; Juan Gris Zavaleta who played in Palermo for Chapaleufù will defend the French colours of Tedelou with his cousins Ramiro and Simon, a family team put together by Isabelle Larenaudie; Guillermo Terrera, member of La Dolfina II, will reinforce the French team Rexaline, winner of the Bourbon Trophy last May; Jero Del Carril shines in Argentina with La Ensenada, and remains faithful to Kazak in France, finalist of the 2021 French Open. In short, seven of the forty players of the 2021 Argentine Open will be in Chantilly in September!
Amanara, the team of Dutchwoman Nicky Sen, returns to Chantilly with the impressive Santiago Chavane, a brilliant player who played alongside the Heguy brothers in the mythical Indios Chapaleufù I team. In Chantilly, he will throw his son Lorenzo, 14 years old, a child prodigy, into the big games. They will be joined by their brother and uncle, Jota Chavane, with Los Dragones.
The Copa Cámara podium in Chantilly!
La Magdeleine will return to defend the title with Tito Ruiz Guiñazu, who shone in Palermo with Alegria Fish Creek and who will play in Chantilly alongside Facundo Llorente, who was crowned MVP of the French final. Two months later, Llorente won the coveted Copa Cámara de Diputados in Buenos Aires, the antechamber to the Argentine Open. In Chantilly, he will be up against his teammates from La Irenitafrom that great adventure: Min Podesta in the team of French captain Bruno Bensousan, La Berta, based in England, and Agustin Garcia Grossi, who will be seen in Chantilly as a pillar of the new team La Fija Sandbox, whose French captain, Arthur Madrid, comes from Argentina.
Another former winner of this Copa Cámara, Martin Aguerre Jr. remains faithful to his Swiss team Marquard Media and to his emblematic captain of the Polo Club de Chantilly, Tomas Rinderknecht.
The Berlin Polo Club seems to have taken root in the Polo de Chantilly because after the Rider Cup, we will find the German club in the Open de France Engel & Völkers with Manuel Elizalde, who also played the Copa Cámara, as a pillar. The other German team, Team Schockemöhle, has renewed its confidence in French pro Clément Delfosse, who is always very explosive on the field and who will play alongside Argentine Valentin Novillo Astrada, a member of a famous polo family, and the German No. 1, Patrick Maleitzke.
Finally, the French n°1, Pierre Henri Ngoumou, will still be the leader of the Deauville team, Mungo, with the spectacular Tete Storni, Argentinean Pato Champion (the ancestor of horse-ball), but just as formidable on a polo field.
Facundo F. Llorente (right in white), best player in the final of the Engel & Völkers Open de France 2221, whose mare La Irenita Loli was crowned best horse in the same final, won the coveted Copa Cámara de Diputados in Buenos Aires three months later. He will return to Chantilly with La Magdeleine in September. © R&B Presse
Engel & Völkers French Open Teams
