'New face or experienced player' 2026 KOVO foreign player tryout and draft will be held in Czech Republic in May

*This content was translated by AI.

The 2026 KOVO foreign player tryout and draft, organized by the Korea Volleyball Federation (KOVO), will be held simultaneously in Prague, Czech Republic from May 7 to 10.

A total of 84 male and 72 female athletes applied for the tryout this year. Among them, the top 25 male and female players, who have been evaluated by the club, will attend the Prague tryout site. In addition, among the players who have played on the V-League stage in the 2025-2026 season, they can apply until the 7th after the championship match.

Among the men's new faces, Apogit Spike Linus Weber, a former member of the German national team of 203 centimeters and a former member of the Polish league, Felipe Hocky (OH/OP, Brazil) of Japan's SV. League Hiroshima, and Zander Ketzinski, a former member of the Canadian national team who ranked first in the German league in the 2024-2025 season, are notable. It is noteworthy that Italian Monza setter Jan Zimmerman was also listed on the invitation list, and this is the first time that Setter has been included among all-time tryout invited players.

The women's team includes Yency Kindelan (188cm, OP/MB), a Cuban national team member who played in the Romanian league, Ivana Banyak, a 193cm tall Outside Hitter who has played in the Chinese league, and Angela Yovanovitch, an apogit spiker from Serbia.

There are also familiar faces. In the men's division, Luis Elian Estrada, who wore the KEPCO uniform in the 2024-2025 season but dropped out due to injury, Mattei Kok, who was nominated by Woori Card in the 2023-2024 season, and Grozer, who played for Samsung Fire in the 2015-2016 season, are knocking on the door of the V-League again.

In the women's division, there are Banya Bukirich, who served as the Korea Expressway Corporation in the 2023-2024 season, and Tutku bourgeois Yuzgenk, who played for Heungkuk Life in the 2024-2025 season.

On the other hand, the annual salary of foreign players in the men's team is $400,000 in the first year and $550,000 in the second year and above. Female foreign athletes will receive $250,000 in the first year and $300,000 in the second year. Players who played in the V-League in the 2025-2026 season will be given priority nomination rights to the original club, and the club will have to submit the contract signed with the player to the league by the day before the draft.

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*This content was translated by AI.