The Serbian specialist Slobodan Kovac was officially introduced as the new head coach of the Turkish men's national volleyball team. The signing of the contract took place at the Presidential Office of the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) in Istanbul, with the Vice President of the Federation, responsible for national teams - Semih Oktay, also present at the ceremony. This was announced on the official website of the Turkish Federation.

Rich career and impressive successes

The 58-year-old Kovac is an experienced coach who has led a number of club teams since 2008-2009, and at the international level boasts a European title with the Serbian national team. In his club career, he has two Turkish League trophies, two Turkish Cups, two Serbian championship titles, and one Challenge Cup trophy.

In his national team career so far, he has been at the helm of the Iranian national team (2014-2015), Slovenia (2017-2018), and again Serbia (2019-2021), leaving a significant mark everywhere with achievements and player development.

Legend on the court as well

Before dedicating himself to coaching, Slobodan Kovac was one of Serbia's leading players. He won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and reached the top with Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000 - one of the greatest achievements in the history of Serbian (and former Yugoslav) volleyball.

Meridian Sport - the ",first stone", in the Turkish volleyball drama

It is curious that it was the SerbianMeridian Sportnot only were the first to shed light on the potential negotiations between TVF and Slobodan Kovac, but in fact they were also thefirst to announcethat such contact even existed. The news did not come from the Turkish mass media. Even before the officials spoke, the Serbian media published information that the 58-year-old Kovac was in advanced talks with the Turkish federation and was about to take over ",Filenin Efeleri."
After this initial strike, the media literally directed the chronology of the ",series":

• First - the news of negotiations with Kovac.

• Then - new plots about how the negotiations stalled due to financial parameters and that the TVF had turned to Radostin Stoychev.

• Finally - the ",bomb", with allegations of a locker room revolt against the possible appointment of the Bulgarian.
  

  
  

  
  Of course, it could also simply be a typical journalistic competition - who will be first with the big news, who will generate more readings through scandalous headlines. But the fact that the entire saga unfolded in sync with Meridian Sport's publications (the last one from today at noon, editor's note), and not with official announcements from the TVF, leaves ample room for interpretation.