ITALY
Thomas Beretta will remain in Italian SuperLega club Gi Group Monza for the fourth consecutive season. In the 2017/18, the middle blocker appeared 33 times including regular season and playoffs, recording 68 kill blocks.
Bunge Ravenna made an important contract extension official. The outside hitter Giacomo Raffaelli will spend his third season in a row with the current CEV Challenge Cup winners. Raffaelli has been included in the preliminary list of Italy national team for 2018 but was not summoned for the ongoing FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
Emma Villas Siena keep strengthening their roster with big names. A 30-year-old outside hitter Gabriele Maruotti will wear the jersey of SuperLega newcomers in the next season which will be his 12th in the Italian top flight. He played for Taiwan Excellence Latina in the last three seasons. Maruotti, one-time Italian Supercup and CEV Cup winner with Volley Treviso and CEV Challenge Cup with Wixo LPR Piacenza, is currently engaged with Italy national team in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
Luigi-Randazzo
Another “Azzurri” member currently competing in the VNL has found himself a club for the 2018/19. Actually, he will stay in the same club as last season. Cucine Lube Civitanova has renewed a loan of a 24-year-old outside hitter Luigi Randazzo to Kioene Padova for which he scored 510 points in the last season in total to become the 5th best scorer in SuperLega.
BCC Castellana Grotte signed the new contract with their middle blocker Giorgio Di Togni. Thus, a 32-year-old player will play his 17th season in SuperLega during which he recorded 375 appearances!
POLAND
The 26-year-old Jake Langlois strengthened the Polish Plus Liga side MKS Będzin, coming from Italian Gi Group Monza. A player who has an impressive height for an outside hitter (2.08m) currently represents United States in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League. At the same time, Będzin extended deals with young setter Łukasz Kozub and middle blocker Bartłomiej Grzechnik.
After parting ways with Stocznia Szczecin, the middle blocker Bartosz Gawryszewski has joined Aluron Virtu Warta Zawiercie who engaged another player in the same position – Marcin Kania from Division 2 club AZS AGH Kraków.
A 22-year-old Asseco Resovia Rzeszów outside hitter Dominik Depowski signed with GKS Katowice who also hired a 2.08m tall middle blocker Wojciech Sobala from Jastrzębski Węgiel.
TURKEY
The Turkish Efeler Ligi side İnegöl Bld. reinforced their squad with an experienced opposite Kemal Kıvanç Elgaz who came from Afyon Bld. Yüntaş and Montenegrin outside hitter Vojin Ćaćić who arrived from Ziraat Bankası.
A 31-year-old French international Samuel Tuia is no longer a member of İstanbul BBSK.
Tyler-Sanders
A 27-year-old Canada national team captain Tyler Sanders has joined current Efeler Ligi champions Halkbank after competing for Polish powerhouse Trefl Gdańsk in 2017/18.
A player who was announced as a sensation of the Turkish volleyball in the last several years returned to the Turkish top division. After a season which he spent in Division 2 side Tokat Bld. Plevne, Cansın Ogbai Enaboifo signed with Beşiktaş.
Galatasaray HDI Sigorta extended contracts with middle blocker Ertuğrul Gazi Metin and libero Onurcan Çakır.
After wearing the jersey of Noliko Maaseik in previous two seasons, the Argentine player Nicolás Bruno strengthened Maliye Piyango who also extended with libero Murat Tokgöz.
Newcomers Arhavi Bld. acquired another Belogorie Belgorod player. After signing Ian Iereshchenko, the club from the city of Artvin engaged outside hitter Roman Danilov.
Afyon Bld. Yüntaş renewed with their middle blocker Muhammet Ertuğrul for one more season.
RUSSIA
The current Russian Superliga silver medalists Zenit Sankt-Peterburg hired new libero, a 23-year-old Semen Krivitchenko, who came from Dinamo-LO Leningradskaya Oblast.
Two more Dinamo-LO Leningradskaya Oblast players left the club and both signed an agreement for the upcoming season with Dinamo Moscow: the opposite Aleksandr Kovalev and receiver Stanislav Eremin. Sergey Grankin is not the only returnee to Dinamo. After four seasons, spending all of them in Fakel Novy Urengoy, the setter Valentin Bezrukov joined the club from the Russian capital.
An experienced middle blocker Mikhail Shcherbakov re-united with Kuzbass Kemerovo after one season which he spent in Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. Thus, he will be the only player in the club in 2018/19 from the roster when Kuzbass was established in 2008. Before moving to play in Lokomotiv, Shcherbakov has worn the jersey of Kuzbass for nine straight years playing more than 400 matches and finishing Superliga regular season best middle blocker twice. In addition to Shcherbakov, Kuzbass hired three more newcomers: middle blocker Ivan Demakov (Dinamo-LO Leningradskaya oblast), setter Ivan Lukyanenko (Lokomotiv Novosibirsk), and outside hitter Semen Dmitriev (Yaroslavich Yaroslavl).
See our sections – Transfers – Done Deals and Transfers – Rumors.
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