A foreign player who will be responsible for farming for one season of the 7 professional volleyball men’s clubs has been covered. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance had Cuban outside hitter Yosbani Hernandez (32, 201cm) as the first priority.
The Korea Volleyball메이저놀이터 Federation held the 2023 KOVO Men’s Foreign Player Tryout & Draft in Turkey, Istanbul on the 8th (Korean time). While Korean Air, KEPCO, OK Financial Group, and KB Insurance decided to renew contracts with foreign players who were with them last season, only Hyundai Capital, Woori Card, and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance exercised their nomination rights.
According to the final results of the last season, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance ranked 7th with 35, 6th with 30 KB Insurance, 5th with OK Financial Group 25, 4th with Woori Card, 3rd with 15 KEPCO, and 2nd with Hyundai Capital. After being given 10 marbles and 5 marbles for first place Korean Air, it was decided through a lottery. The order of nominations was decided in the order of OK Financial Group – Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance – KB Insurance – Korean Air – Hyundai Capital – Woori Card – Korea Electric Power Corporation.
Since OK Financial Group re-signed with Leo (33, 206 cm), the top scorer (921 points) last season, the first place was in fact Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance. In response, Samsung Fire & Marine Manager Kim Sang-woo nominated Yosubani, which was considered the biggest language in this tryout.
Yosubani is already familiar to V-League fans. He has been active at OK Financial Group in the 2018-2019 season, Hyundai Capital in the 2019-2020 season, and Korean Air in the 2020-2021 season. Yosubani received the best ratings in this tryout as a resource capable of both an apositive spiker and an outside heater.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance also obtained the first choice in the Asian Quarter Draft. Since Mongolian apogee spiker Eddy (24, 198cm) was selected here, Yosubani is expected to be appointed as an outside heater.
KB Insurance in 3rd place, followed by Villena (30, 193cm), who joined as a substitute last season and played an active role, and Korean Air in 4th place, re-signed with Lincoln (30, 200cm), who had a treble last season. 5th place Hyundai Capital nominated Ahmed Iqbairi (27, 200cm), who received the first place last season and played for Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance.
In the 6th place, Woori Card selected Matei Kok (27, 199cm), an outside hitter from Slovenia. He is the only ‘new face’ to step on the V-League stage through this tryout. KEPCO was ranked 7th last, but it has already signed a renewal contract with Thais (32, 205cm), who contributed to the first playoff victory in its establishment.
Jose Masso (26, 204cm), a Cuban-born apologetic spiker who was considered the biggest player along with Yosbani, did not attend this tryout. Although he did not appear in the evaluation match held from the 6th to the 7th, he was scheduled to attend the final day of the tryout, but due to the schedule of his current team, it was difficult to enter Turkiye, so he was notified of his absence.
It is regrettable for the club that paid attention to Maso. The evaluation of Maso seen through the video was close to Keita Noumori (Blue Valley Verona), who led KB Insurance to runner-up in the last 2021-2022 V-League. Although he is not superior to Keita, he is rated as having skills around 80 to 90%.
With the men’s Asian quota and foreign player tryouts all completed, attention is now focused on the women’s division. The women’s foreign player tryout will be held for three days from the 11th to the 13th at the same location.