Just one day before the Italian Super Cup semifinal against Lube Civitanova, featuring Aleksandar and Simeon Nikolov, Verona officially announced the signing of Ukrainian international Denys Veletskyi. The 26-year-old middle blocker will strengthen Fabio Soli's squad, which has been experiencing personnel difficulties since the start of the season due to Lorenzo Cortesia's prolonged absence.
The transfer was officially announced today, November 13, but the Ukrainian is not unknown to his new teammates. As early as October 31, local media outlet TgGialloblu reported that Veletskyi had been in Verona for several weeks and was participating in training, with only his official registration still pending at that time.
His signing is linked to Cortesia's prolonged recovery. The Italian international sustained an injury during national team preparation in August and has not yet played this season.
In the medical announcement published by Verona on November 12, the club specified that Cortesia continues his recovery and is expected to rejoin training in the coming weeks.
Thus, Veletskyi will provide an additional rotation option in the middle, where Fabio Soli has Simone Anzani, Marco Vitelli, and Aidan Zingel. For now, however, the club has not explicitly confirmed whether the new signing will be available for the semifinal in Parma.

The Ukrainian international was born in 2000 and is 206 centimeters tall. In his career, he has played for Lokomotiv Kharkiv, Novator, Hungarian Fino Kaposvár, Reshetylivka, and Prometey Dnipro, from where he arrives in the Italian SuperLega.
Veletskyi was part of the Ukrainian national team at EuroVolley 2026, including during the matches in Sofia. According to the official statistics of the European Volleyball Confederation, he participated in two matches, scoring a total of 6 points in five sets. In Ukraine's 3:1 victory over Bulgaria, he remained on the bench and did not play. Interestingly, even in his potential debut for Verona, Veletskyi could face a teammate from the Ukrainian national team. Lube features 19-year-old opposite Maksym Tonkonoh, who was also part of the Ukrainian squad at EuroVolley 2026.

Interestingly, even before the officialization of the transfer, Veletskyi was linked to Verona precisely as a solution to the problems caused by Cortesia's injury. Thus, the announcement of the new signing immediately before the Super Cup is more the culmination of an operation prepared for weeks, rather than a last-minute urgent acquisition.
Verona also has another serious personnel problem. American setter Mike Christenson continues his recovery after surgery, with an additional muscle complication delaying his return to the court.
Despite the difficulties, Fabio Soli's team will try to eliminate Lube again, as they did in the Super Cup semifinal in February in Trieste. Verona then won 3:1, despite Aleksandar Nikolov's 26 points.
The new clash is on Saturday, November 14, at 7:00 PM Bulgarian time in the PalaRaschi hall in Parma. The winner will play for the trophy on Sunday against Perugia or Trento.

photo: Nikolay Varadinov