Barthelemy-Chinenyeze
The defending Ligue A champions Tours Volley-Ball officially engaged country’s national team middle blocker Barthélémy Chinenyeze. A 20-year-old is considered one of the best players on his position in the world at the moment. The 2017 FIVB World League winner Chinenyeze came to Tours after spending the last three months of the 2017/18 in Asseco Resovia Rzeszów, Poland. Earlier, Tours engaged Ukrainian middle blocker Dmytro Teryomenko (Cerrad Czarni Radom, Poland), and outside hitter Maxime Capet (Tourcoing Volley-Ball).
Tha status of Spacer’s Toulouse in the Ligue A (finished regular season at the last place – No.12) has been saved in the last moment as the league leadership decided to expand the tournament from 12 to 14 teams. Right after they found out the big news, Toulouse started to compose the roster for the 2018/19. The head coach Stéphane Sapinart will have only three players from the last season’s roster in the 2018/19 – the Canadian duo Danny Demyanenko and Ryan Nickifor as well as Nicolas Burel. The first player that came to Toulouse was Argentinean libero Sebastián Closter (Rennes Volley 35). He was followed by the Dutch outside hitter Gijs Jorna (Tricolorul LMV Ploieşti, Romania), opposite Jordan Corteggiani (Taiwan Excellence Latina, Italy), setter Toafa Takaniko (GFC Ajaccio Volley-Ball), Brazilian middle blocker André Radtke (Narbonne Volley, Division 2). In addition, Toulouse rejoined several players from the youth team to the main squad: Yann Tavernier, Louis Pineau, Théo Faure, Cyril Larrieu, and Pierre Derouillon.
The runners-up Chaumont Volley-Ball 52 Haute-Marne brought backup libero in for the next season – a 23-year-old Théo Morillon. He spent the last season playing Division 2 in the jersey of Grand Nancy Volley Ball. After a season spent in Poland (Aluron Virtu Varta Zawiercie), the Slovak outside hitter Matej Paták has returned to Chaumont. The Canadian outside hitter Keith West became the last reinforcement of Chaumont so far. A 22-year-old will play his first professional season upon arriving from University of British Columbia volleyball team Thunderbirds with whom he won the U SPORTS championship.
Bram-Vandendries
The Belgian international Bram van den Dries (28 years, 2.07m) will be the new opposite of Rennes Volley 35 who avoided relegation from the Ligue A by beating Narbonne Volley in the playout before the league extended the tournament for the 2018/19. Van den Dries was playing in Spacer’s Toulouse last season.
Nantes Rezé Métropole Volley are close to completing the roster for the next season. They hired five players recently: a prospect middle blocker Sébastian Roatta (Montana, Bulgaria), the Canadian outside hitter Blake Scheerhoorn (Indykpol AZS Olsztyn, Poland) who will replace the Dutch Floris van Rekom, Slovak outside hitter Peter Michalovič (Yaroslavich Yaroslavl, Russia), and setter’s duo Léo Meyer (Rennes Volley 35) and Slovenian Gregor Ropret (won the Czech title with ČEZ Karlovarsko).
See our sections – Transfers – Done Deals and Transfers – Rumors.
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