ITALY
The Italian men’s volleyball SuperLega club Bunge Ravenna engaged experienced setter who competed in France in the last four years – a 30-year-old former Italy national team player Davide Saitta. While playing in the French Ligue A, Saitta won the championship title in 2016 with Paris Volley and was named MVP next season while wearing the jersey of Montpellier Volley Université Club from which he came to Ravenna. Saitta was named MVP of the 2007 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship as well. At the same time, Ravenna announced the hiring of a new coach that will replace Fabio Soli. It is Gianluca Graziosi, who came from Division 2 side Caloni Agnelli Bergamo while in these weeks he is working with Italy men’s “B” national team.
SuperLega newcomers Emma Villas Siena extended the contract with their outside hitter Michele Fedrizzi for one more year. A 27-year-old player who was summoned to Italy national team for the 2017 FIVB World League Final Six was one of the key players in achieving a promotion to SuperLega last season, reaching 118 points in the playoffs. Italian media reported that Emma Villas aim for Iranian star Saeid Marouf and Japanese prospect Yuki Ishikawa!
A 30-year-old outside hitter Iacopo Botto will spend his seventh consecutive season in the jersey of Gi Group Monza. A player that was enlisted for Italy NT for the 2017 FIVB World League and 2017 EV European Championship has served as a captain of the club in the last three years. Last season, Botto totaled 180 points.
POLAND
A 23-year-old outside hitter Artur Szalpuk returned to the 2017/18 Polish Plus Liga winners PGE Skra Bełchatów after a year. He competed in a high-level last season in Trefl Gdańsk, scoring 496 points and receiving the MVP of the match award seven times. With Trefl, he won the Polish Cup.
GERMANY
The 2017/18 German Bundesliga runners-up VfB Friedrichshafen remained without both setters from last season. After Simon Tischer said goodbye to professional volleyball, the Slovak Tomáš Kocian moved to Friedrichshafen’s rivals in the national championship SWD powervolleys Düren. As for the arrivals, Friedrichshafen engaged setter Martin Krüger from TSV Herrsching. The outside hitters David Sossenheimer and Greek Athanasios Protopsaltis have renewed their contracts for one year each as well as libero Markus Steuerwald and middle blocker’s duo Philipp Collin and Jakob Günthör.
See our sections – Transfers – Done Deals and Transfers – Rumors.
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