Radostin Stoychev is the new head coach of Turkish Halkbank, the club announced on social media.

Stoychev resigned as coach of Italian Verona in March, after a scandal between him and a Lube fan, which arose at the beginning of the year. The coach briefly returned to Bulgaria, where he watched VASK's (Stoychev-Kaziyski Volleyball Academy) match to stay in the second tier of the domestic men's championship.
In the 2013-2014 season, he led the Turkish club and in the same season won the Super Cup, the Turkish Cup, the Turkish Championship title, and also played in the CEV Champions League final, where he lost to Russian Belgorod.

Matey Kaziyski was also on the team then.

Stoychev replaces Igor Kolakovic, who was fired at the end of last week after an unsuccessful season for the team in the Turkish championship. At the same time, the team qualified for the Final Four of the Champions League, which will take place in the Polish city of Łódź from May 16 to 18. There, Stoychev will face Italian champions Perugia in the semi-finals, the same team he eliminated in the Italian Cup semi-final with Verona. Stoychev has signed a contract for the end of this season and the next.

We remind you that after spending the first half of the season at Lokomotiv Novosibirsk, where Plamen Konstantinov is coach, Yoandy Leal joined Halkbank. From the new season, Tsvetan Sokolov, who was part of the team in 2014/15 - 2015/16, also returns to the team. Thus, after Stoychev coached Sokolov in Trento, he is once again reunited with the former captain of the national team.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov