Twenty-one years old and already he has three Italian and one French club behind him. Tino Hanžić, a child of Mladost who went abroad in 2018, a 198 cm tall receiver-spiker, does not seem to have made a mistake when he went to professional volleyball too early.
After Mladost, he was a member of French Nice, and Italian clubs from A3 league Avimecc Modica and Falu Ottaviano, and from last year he has played for the Italian A2 league Pool Libertas from Cantu. This persistent young man, eager to work, decided to build his volleyball career in Italy, paving his way for A1 on his own. A slightly different path from many who grabbed the first league contract, but then, as inexperienced, sat on the bench for the rest of the season…
His season this year could somehow be divided into two parts, before and after the Covid pandemic. In the first part of the season, this stable A2 league player had high ambitions to enter Serie A, and in the middle of the season, his ambitions went down.
“Turbulent season definitely,” says Tino. “We were at the top, and then the problems came, we were left without an excellent and experienced organizer of the game because he didn’t get vaccinated so he couldn’t play, and then one by one player started to get sick, and in the end injuries came as well. We fell hard on the table, but we managed somehow to consolidate and come back. By the end of the regular season there were two more matches left, against Sienna and Brescia, teams from which we lost in the first half, but when we were incomplete. With those two possible victories now, which are not an impossible mission, we could reach the playoffs, “says Tino, the only foreigner in the club, because these are the regulations in the A2 Italian league.
“It’s a pity because the season started great, I played well and was very satisfied. But after I got over the coronavirus, it took me more than a month to come back to my senses, physically it really broke me. We all fell in the game because of that. Fortunately, it looks much better now “, says Tino, who has not yet decided where he will continue his next season.
“There are some combinations already, but I don’t want to prejudge anything. Anyway, I want to stay in Italy, I think it’s a great environment for my progress. And it doesn’t have to be the A1 league, great practices and an ambitious environment is important for me. So, I prefer an A2 league team that wants to join the A1 league, rather than an unambitious first league team from the middle of the table. “
Played in the playoffs or not, the season ends by the end of April, and then our young volleyball player can certainly expect the invitation of the new coach Cedric Enard.
“I heard all the best about him, I followed his work, and we met at the European Championship last year when we played against Estonia, which he led at the time. We haven’t heard from each other yet, which is logical because we all have the championship finals going on now, so we are focused only on that. However, I am in contact with his first assistant Tomislav Ćošković. In any case, if I receive an invitation for summer preparations, I am looking forward to cooperating in advance. We have a lot to look forward to this summer, from the European League, the Golden Group and the Final Four, through the Mediterranean Games to qualify for the European Championship. “
Last year, Tino Hanžić was part of the national team, with coach Zanini, although he joined a little later.
“I had big problems last year because I broke my ankle in January, which knocked me out of my performance for a long time. However, I somehow managed to shorten the rehabilitation time, so with the help of Pero Kuterovac, with whom I did physical preparations, I jumped lightly on the field in April. I got a chance in the national team and I believe I took it. This summer I am ready, both physically and tactically, because we are working hard on it, my coach at the moment is the coach of the Italian junior national team, very dedicated and ambitious “, says, in the end, Tino Hanžić, a very ambitious young man who brought attention to himself with his early departure abroad because he obviously had a planned volleyball path. A path on which he did not neglect schooling either, as he is studying sports management at a college in Denmark, where he is currently finishing his second year.
