President Fusaro, it’s a bit strange to talk about the transfer market and next year when the season is far from over. You are in the quarter-finals of the SuperLega Credem Banca championship play-offs, but for a few weeks now names and rumors have been circulating about arrivals and departures for your Allianz Milano. Can you confirm anything?
“Rumors have been circulating about the departures of all the Super League teams since January, not just us. You know well by now what my communication style is. I like to speak with facts. For announcements it is premature. However, I am also not one to hide and I am happy to say a few words on the issue and, more generally, on our project. Just as I had to intervene in January when everyone thought our coach Roberto Piazza was leaving, perhaps with Paolino Porro… It seemed that everyone was fleeing from Milan, without any arrival. Instead, Piazza and the diagonal formed by two young people, among the best in the world, such as Paolo Porro (who I remember was a reserve in another club) and our latest discovery Ferre Reggers (who turned out to be among the best opposing players in the championship) they will be the backbone of our project for next season too. To act as mother hen for these and other young people, we will have captain Matteo Piano and a certain Matey Kaziyski who, despite the injury, has put the best receivers in the championship in difficulty. As always, and as happens in all teams, we will have several additions of new players, but it is a natural path in top sport, which has already been tackled in other years”.
In specialized media and beyond, there is now insistent talk of the arrival of a great young protagonist of the Super League, such as Davide Gardini, but also of the Italian Edoardo Caneschi in the centre, of the French Olympic champion Louati, but also of let’s say more exotic names like the emerging Japanese Otsuka…
“They are players that our sporting director Fabio Lini has been following for some time and personally I believe they would be suitable for our volleyball project. But that’s not all, among the names you mentioned, another high-level international center back and at least two young Italians of value are missing. Two of the many who grew up in the protected Powervolley – Diavoli, who we sent to gain experience in A2. Now, after having been protagonists of the cadet series, I think the time may have come for them to return home…”
Of course, with all these arrivals, there will also be departures. Is the farewell to Loser and Ishikawa confirmed? Since this news circulates with great insistence.
“I know that they have received economic offers that are indispensable from a certain point of view, and we are not willing to do an upward auction with anyone and for anyone. It would be immoral for our concept of playing volleyball in Milan at a high level and unfair towards them to try to block the legitimate hopes of earning more. I wish these two champions, if they choose to leave Allianz Milano, the best of luck, and I hope that they also find an environment like ours elsewhere, which has protected them and made them grow as people and as players.”
Will there also be other departures of players under contract?
“If this were the case, it would be due to a choice coordinated with the sporting management and functional to the balance that our coach Roberto Piazza (who I consider among the best in the world for how he managed to enhance young people like Sbertoli, Nimir, Porro, Reggers and many others) will want to give to continue to demonstrate that Volleyball is a team game and individuals don’t always solve matches”.
