What's the deal with this serb-china collaboration. Are they big Serbian financial investments in China?
The other way around, actually. China is basically taking over the country, which is why we have plenty of vaccines at the time most of Europe is struggling to get any.
I'm not really happy with this special relationship, but what can you do.
As for Alesya/Olesya thing, in Russian, unstressed "o" is pronounced like "a", which is called vowel reduction (but NOT in Ukrainian, which means Rykhlyuk must be a native Russian speaker, like many Ukrainians are). This is definitely not the standard way to transliterate Cyrillic into Latin, but I guess she prefers this version for some resion.
Imagine if Galatasaray hadn't managed to sign Kosheleva. Imagine if something happened to Bošković and she wasn't available for Ecz. My God.
TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if she spent the rest of her career in Eczacibasi.
There was an interview with Terzić and he said they're well covered with Turkish players and are now looking for foreigners. Nobody has signed yet and they're exploring various options, but from the sound of it, it appears the squad will be quite different next season, He hopes there will once again be some Serbian players.
I m very surprised with this statement. This situation makes it extra weird that why she didn't apply for Turkish citizenship 🤔 with all respect, Serbian passport is not meat better than Turkish passport since they are not an EU country neither. And if she would be eligible to play as a local player, she would be the most wanted opposite among Turkish clubs
There's something dodgy going on🤔 is her wife from Serbia?
The difference is that the holders of Serbian passport can enter the EU (and China) without a visa, which I assume is very practical for a volleyball player. Still, as corrupt as Serbia is, one cannot simply apply for a passport and get it fast-tracked without having something to offer in return. And I doubt Vargas would have the amount of money needed to bribe the officials. That's mostly reserved for shady millionaires fleeing their countries trying to protect their wealth and even then it happens very rarely.
Serbia doesn't recognize same-sex partnerships, so Vargas having a Serbian wife would have no bearing on her getting Serbian citizenship.
The point is, we have Terzić on record saying Vargas is going to play on Serbian NT and that they've approached the FIVB to get the permission, He wouldn't lie about something like that. So, something must have definitely happened for Vargas to change her mind.
As for the Brankica matter, I assume as a long time member of the team (and one of Terzić's favourites) she was consulted about the thole thing and that Vargas was joining because she intended to retire in a couple of years and not that Vargas was going to push her out of the team.
Polen in this set 
Ebrar can only dream of such performance ATM.
Yes, but why would the government of Serbia give its citizenship to some random person with no ties to the country and no intention to establish them? No one does that and it makes no sense. Like it's been mentioned in this thread, there are provisions in the law that enable the naturalization of persons who could "benefit and promote the country of Serbia" (the latest example being in women's basketball just recently), but Vargas playing in Fenerbahce or wherever and NOT on the Serbian NT does not meet that requirement.
It's possible she simply changed her mind for whatever reason. If so, I wonder how that will affect her relationship and cooperation with Terzić.
I do think Bianka has been getting a lot of recognition, which is more than well deserved considering she's been steadily improving and now has a rightful place on a team like Fenerbahce, which would have been unthinkable just a couple of seasons ago. I think her baptism by fire at the last WCh with her suddenly finding herself in the starting line-up after Blagojević and Milenković got injured and Malešević sucked did her a tremendous amount of good in the long run.
However, I still think Peak Malešević was a better player (except for the serve) and I'll forever be bitter that her career just fell apart like that.
The problem with Haak is that she tends to make a number of wild errors in a very short time. She almost always cleans up her game afterwards, but the impression remains.
Also, today she didn't play badly at all, but was simply overshadowed by Gabi's spectacular performance.
To be honest I think Mihajlovic's level is not as a high as it was a few years ago. Even last time she played with Maja (ECH) she did OK but she wasn't close to her best.
I think she did great at ECh, even outshining Bošković at some point, except for that tragic performance against Italy in the semis.
IMO she's still more than fine, but the age with tear and wear is slowly catching up with her (we shouldn't forget she's been playing for over a decade, all over the world, usually as the main scorer for her team) and she's not fit physically at the moment,
Naz only trusts Busa right now, and Vakif's block finally found her... She won't win this by herself
Vargas needs to step up BIG time. Vakifbank is actually leaking errors quite a bit but it won't be enough for Fener to turn this around.
Apparently Brankica has a nerve inflammation of some sort and is not fully fit physically.
Maja is just ridiculous in this match
She did in EuroVolley 2009 and 2011 in qulification round, even i remeber in 2012 when she started to play for Serbia in WGP what comentator said, she already had citizenship, and the last match in the second qualifying round was on May 30, 2010. Also that she is naturalized player is confirmed to me by Milan Vujačić, coordinator of international competitions and administator of social media pages of OSSRB (Volleyball Federation of Serbia).
I clearly remember that she was supposed to join the Serbian NT in 2013, and then it turned on she never actually played on Bosnian senior NT even though she was registered, so the FIVB gave her the green light a year sooner,
Has Serbia ever had a naturalized player in female volleyball?
There was the MB Dragana Marinković who switched from Croatia to Serbia in 2007/2008 (she's an ethnic Serb too), but she never made much of an impact and I don't think she ever played at a big tournament.
As Brankica Mihajlović played for BiH senior national team, while she is in the serbian national team Vargas will not be able to play for Serbia.
She didn't, that's why she was able to play for Serbia in 2012 already. Technically, Serbia has no naturalized players at the moment.
Apparently Vargas got Serbian passport last year already and now Serbian federation made an official request to FIVB to recognize the nationality change 
She could have her debut on Serbian NT in 2022. Looks like Terzić is behind it all.
Ognjenović said that she and Rašić are negative, but everyone has been tested again.
It turns out Stefana Veljković would have played in Fenerbahce this season had she not got pregnant. 
Oh well, maybe some other time!
Stefana Veljković is pregnant 
She's due to give birth in February, so she's obviously skipping the next season but hasn't given up on playing at the Olympics and hopes to be ready by then.
Yeah, Maja looks almost unrecognizable. I don't think the others changed that much.
Molnar was the true MPV of the final. One of her career best performances and probably the last one on such a high level. Sadly, her body started giving up on her soon.
Nikolić was coming off a rather bad injury and would have certainly skipped this tournament if not for a once in a lifetime chance to play such a major event in her hometown. I remember her talking about how she used to spend a couple of more hours in the gym after each training every day so she chould be fit in time. I think she did well, all things considered.
It was such a nervy, tension filled match. Just thinking back to it makes my stomach react. 
And it's so depressing to think that what was supposed to be Malagurski's arrival to the big scene and an announcement of her as a future great turned out to be her swan song, as she got that terrible injury literally the next time she played a match and was never the same again.
Lisinac, Podraščanin and Luburić are positive as well now. Ouch.
