Olympic champion Sergey Grankin will play for Portuguese club Sporting next season.
The legendary setter is also temporarily suspending his coaching career, as announced by his agent Vladimir Kastornov, with the information coming from the Russian sports websitesport.business-gazeta.ru, also known as BO Sport.
"The choice of Sporting is primarily due to the team's participation in the group stage of the Champions League and the high level of club organization. This is a great opportunity for Sergey to return to the international competitive stage, which a player of such a level has certainly missed. I am sure that this cooperation will be extremely beneficial for both parties," Kastornov wrote.
Let us recall that last season Grankin was the head coach of Yaroslavich and helped the team reach the Super League. In the second part of the season, however, he often acted as an assistant, and the team was led by club president Sergey Shlyapnikov.
The 40-year-old setter Sergey Grankin first retired from playing in 2024 after two seasons with Fakel. He is a champion of Russia (2008) and Germany (2019, 2021, 2022), a CEV Cup winner (2012, 2015, 2018), and a silver (2010) and bronze (2007, 2011) medalist of the Champions League.
The legendary playmaker played 265 matches for the Russian national team, winning the London Olympics (2012) after a phenomenal comeback in the final against Brazil, two European Championships (2013, 2017), and two World League tournaments (2011, 2013). He also won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sporting Lisbon is the current champion of Portugal. Last year, the team reached the semi-finals of the Challenger Cup. Among the team's players are Czech outside hitter Jan Galabov, French middle blocker Jonas Aguenier, and Danish opposite Mads Jensen, who played for Verona last season.
In the Champions League draw, Sporting was placed in Group D, which includes Polish clubs Zawiercie and Resovia, as well as German club Lüneburg.
We remind you that it was us atvolleyweek.bgwho announced earlier this month another potential return of a Russian volleyball player to the court - the legend Alexander Volkov, who will possibly reinforce Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Photo:insidethegames.biz
