Italy - Serie A1 2023/24

    Quote from VBdiamond

    In my life I saw much better OHs than Gabi in Serie A1. I don't get any excitament from her transfer, expecially when I saw all the crucial games of VakifBank this season and I can say she had just an average season.

    she will change your mind soon then:)


    I dont see any much better OH that played in italy in the last 15 years.


    I can only call Prime Zhu, Sokolova and Kim Yeon Koung are much better OH than her.

    Quote from VBdiamond

    Savino Del Bene is gonna invest more money next season. And Vero Volley may do the same, expecially if they will lift the Champions League trophy.


    Imoco biggest advantage is having Santarelli. He's always build a big connection with his players and makes them play their best. Egonu has only occasionally played as good as she did with Imoco, for example. Sylla used to look much better while playing in Conegliano.


    As far as I know, Vero Volley will be very italian next season. I heard about Pietrini e Danesi joining. While Scandicci will fix the libero problem with Castillo. And there are rumors about a world star OH joining next season.

    From what is said, the Scandicci and Milano market is already closed...
    In Milano Bajema leaves and Pietrini enters as OH, as MB, Folie and Candi leave and Kurtagic and Danesi arrive, the French Gelin will replace Castillo. A backup O and S will come in place of Malual and Prandi. Only the position of Daalderop remains to be defined, but she should remain...

    Scandicci on the other hand, having lost Zhu, will replace her with Bajema, Villani and Herbots will be confirmed, Ruddins will leave and will be replaced by Kotikova or Bujis. Parrocchiale will remain as Castillo's backup. As MB alongside Carol there will be Bajiens, Nwakalor and Graziani. Gennari will be Maja's backup...

    Milano will lose Castillo, but they will make excellent upgrades in the other roles and will have a balanced and very flexible roster: a very strong team, expecially if Lavarini arrives...
    Scandicci on the other hand will have the usual confusion: in the championship it will be almost impossible to have Carol and Bajiens play together and, with Castillo on the pitch, they will have to either let Villani play as starter or give up one of Maja or Carol... in any case they will never be able to field the strongest sextet...

    Scandicci, without Zhu and Washington, will free a lot of salary space, but I doubt they will invest it next year... In 25/26, Herbots will almost certainly play as an Italian (soon she will get married to her Italian boyfriend) and I believe that the TOP OH you're talking about coming in a year...

    Quote from Sentenza_69

    No... you only have to contact the FIVB if you want to represent the national team...

    Exactly...

    But since the federation of origin doesn't have a say in the exchange rate, it's just a bureaucratic step, there isn't an approval procedure that involves evaluating the thing: it's just "sheets of paper" to fill in and "fees" to be paid then the thing is automatic...

    For example, Rosamaria has already obtained an Italian passport for over a year, but she has not activated the federation change procedure and will not do so at least until she decides not to play anymore for the Brazilian national team and this, according to what she said, will certainly not happen before the Olympics...

    Quote from Sentenza_69

    Exactly...

    But since the federation of origin doesn't have a say in the exchange rate, it's just a bureaucratic step, there isn't an approval procedure that involves evaluating the thing: it's just "sheets of paper" to fill in and "fees" to be paid then the thing is automatic...

    For example, Rosamaria has already obtained an Italian passport for over a year, but she has not activated the federation change procedure and will not do so at least until she decides not to play anymore for the Brazilian national team and this, according to what she said, will certainly not happen before the Olympics...

    Yeah but with fivb one of the requirements since the new rules is that the athlete never played for a different senior NT to approve the change. I don't think they will approve these changes anymore, but I'm not sure. Also I remember something on the fipav documentation something along the lines of "an italian athlete is someone who can play for the national team" but I can't find it right now

    I'm surs Carol can retain her starting position with Scandicci next season.


    Changing federation, as far as I know, has to still go through fivb regardless of an athlete's marital status. As per the new rules, Herbots can no longer change her federation.

    Quote from voulter

    Yeah but with fivb one of the requirements since the new rules is that the athlete never played for a different senior NT to approve the change. I don't think they will approve these changes anymore, but I'm not sure. Also I remember something on the fipav documentation something along the lines of "an italian athlete is someone who can play for the national team" but I can't find it right now

    Again...

    These rules concern national teams, not clubs...

    We are talking about not being able to represent the shirt of a nation if you change nationality (and you have represented the senior national team), not the fact of not being able to play for a club from my new country with my new nationality...

    So, to stay in this specific case, Herbots will be able to become Italian and play as an Italian in an Italian club (or wherever she deems it most appropriate) but, if she does so, she will no longer be able to wear no national jersey...

    Quote from Sentenza_69

    Again...

    These rules concern national teams, not clubs...

    We are talking about not being able to represent the shirt of a nation if you change nationality (and you have represented the senior national team), not the fact of not being able to play for a club from my new country with my new nationality...

    So, to stay in this specific case, Herbots will be able to become Italian and play as an Italian in an Italian club (or wherever she deems it most appropriate) but, if she does so, she will no longer be able to wear no national jersey...

    These rules are about change of federation, there's not a different set of rules for "change of federation just for playing club" and "change of federation for playing in the national team"

    Quote from voulter

    These rules are about change of federation, there's not a different set of rules for "change of federation just for playing club" and "change of federation for playing in the national team"

    exactly, Brit just want to play as italian for an Italian Club, not for the national team obviously. I hope she will join still the Belgian national team as soon as possible!!!

    Quote from VBdiamond

    You would be surprised Imoco was considered the 3rd Force of the league on paper, behind Vero Volley and Scandicci. :lol:


    And there's no way you can compare the current italian league and turkish league. Every single player who came back to Italy this season said the level is way higher and the league more demanding technically, phisically and mentally.

    That makes little sense to me. If Imoco is not the strongest team in Italian league, why did they win the last 6 championships then. That also brings the other non-sense argument of the Italian league being way superior to Turkish league. If that is so, then why the heck SIX-TIME IN A ROW Italian league champion Imoco won only one CEV CL? I don’t know what logic do you guys apply but because some player said so, it doesn’t make it so.


    But I do agree with the fact that even though Gabi is one of the best overall players, her being undersized makes her more susceptible to the injuries. Basically, she has to exert herself more to compensate being undersized. I heard that she was having trouble with her knees but I believe she still have couple more years left to be on top. I think with Gabi Imoco will win their 7th Italian league championship in a row next year. So funny every one complains about Turkish league and yet, Haak, Gabi, Zu are all previous VB players.

    Quote from Aro

    That makes little sense to me. If Imoco is not the strongest team in Italian league, why did they win the last 6 championships then. That also brings the other non-sense argument of the Italian league being way superior to Turkish league. If that is so, then why the heck SIX-TIME IN A ROW Italian league champion Imoco won only one CEV CL? I don’t know what logic do you guys apply but because some player said so, it doesn’t make it so.

    To be fair most players that talk about that mean that Italy has better teams overall, as in better bottom teams not better top teams. Which I don't disagree with, on average teams from around 8th place and below are a bit better in Italy for a number of reasons (having more foreigners obviously helps a lot)

    Quote from voulter

    To be fair most players that talk about that mean that Italy has better teams overall, as in better bottom teams not better top teams. Which I don't disagree with, on average teams from around 8th place and below are a bit better in Italy for a number of reasons (having more foreigners obviously helps a lot)

    That may well be true, I just don’t have any datapoints on that since they don’t compete with each other directly, but you may be right on that.