Preliminary session in the weight room in the morning and ball training in the afternoon for the Italian champions of Sir Susa Vim Perugia who continue their preparations in view of the start of the championship. Once the Paris Olympics are over, the return of the Bianconeri standard-bearers is awaited in Pian di Massiano: starting from the Italians Simone Giannelli and Roberto Russo to Kamil Semeniuk, fresh from winning the silver medal with his Polish national team. There is also great anticipation for the arrival in Perugia of the Japanese Yuki Ishikawa, who after four years in a row in Milan will play his first season in the black and white jersey, as will the Argentine central defender Agustin Loser, fresh from two consecutive seasons at Allianz.
Present at the PalaEvangelisti from day one, the Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara, who appeared in the Italian championship for the first time last year with the Perugia shirt.
«It’s the second year here in Perugia and I’m happy to still be here this year. I had the opportunity to play in all the fields in Italy and met all the other teams. Certainly the level (of the Italian championship) is very high and it is not easy to win with all the teams: you have to give 100 percent every game.”
Ben Tara arrived in Perugia in what would have been a historic season: «On a personal level it was an incredible season because I never thought I would win four trophies out of four in my first season; something incredible has arrived that I can’t even describe, I can’t find the words to describe this!”
We start again, after this year, with new stimuli and with the desire to continue grinding out successes: «Of course, we are a team that wants to win, but before this we still have to work, prepare well because the championship is not easy».
Wassim Ben Tara will play his first Champions League this year with the Perugia shirt. The Tunisian opposite, naturalized Polish, is not new to the top club competition at European level, having already participated when he played in the French championship, in the ranks of Chaumont Volley-Ball, but the stimuli – he says – are not comparable: «here in Italy it is certain that the pressure will be different, the objective is different”.
One thing is certain: since last year, Perugia will remain in Ben Tara’s heart forever: right in the Umbrian capital, the player became a father: «Sure! Perugia is a special city for me and for my family and my wife: our little Zayan arrived here last year and this city will remain in my heart for life!”
