#CLVolleyW: The transfers

As usual, the off-season was full of interesting moves from one club to another and the teams underwent fresh makeovers that will be exciting to see on the international stage as the new women’s CEV Champions League Volley pool stage gets underway next week.

Among the transfers that made headlines this year, those of Serbian setter Maja Ognjenovic from VakifBank Istanbul to Turkish archrivals Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul, of Brazilian outside Natalia Pereira from Russia’s Dinamo Moscow to Italy’s Savino Del Bene Scandicci and of US Olympic gold medallist Kelsey Robinson from Turkey’s Fenerbahce Opet Istanbul to Japan’s Toyota Auto Body Queenseis Kariya are worth a mention as these players will certainly be missed in the Champions League this season.

However, today I present my picks for the top five transfers of players whose performances we will get to enjoy in Europe’s top-tier club tournament as of next Tuesday.

Lokomotiv enter their third Champions League with new confidence. For the first time, they are in Europe’s most prestigious competition representing Russia as national champions and that new confidence comes with new responsibility. In the meantime, some high-level athletes departed and they had to be replaced by other top-notch players. One of the new additions was Polish striker Malwina Smarzek, one of only two foreigners to play for the Kaliningrad team this season and the only true opposite on the squad. After last playing in Poland for Chemik Police and claiming two national titles, in 2018 the 1.91m-tall attacker moved to Italy for the next three seasons. Before transferring to Lokomotiv, Smarzek reached the Champions League semifinals with Igor Gorgonzola. The 25-year-old scoring machine has been a key member of the Polish national team in recent years.

The 31-year-old big star of the Bulgarian national team returned to Russia after spending three consecutive seasons playing for some of Italy’s top clubs, most recently Savino Del Bene. Last year she joined the team from Scandicci halfway through the pool stage to help the team top their pool standings before being eliminated by champions-to-be A. Carraro Imoco Conegliano in the quarterfinals. Before Italy, the 1.94m-tall outside spent three seasons with Russia’s Dinamo Kazan, winning the 2017 CEV Cup. As a player of her previous club, VakifBank, she won Champions League bronze in 2015. Vasileva has also played in the national leagues of Bulgaria, Brazil and Korea. Before joining Dinamo Moscow, Vasileva captained Bulgaria to the trophy in the European Golden League and to the top of their EuroVolley pool.

Ebrar Karakurt has been one of Turkey’s top young talents for a few years now and at the early age of 21 she has already piled up plenty of top-level experience, mainly with Istanbul powerhouse VakifBank and the Turkish national team. In a rare case of a quality Turkish player transferring abroad, the 1.97m-tall striker opted to move to Italy after spending a season with THY Istanbul and reaching the Challenge Cup semifinals. Before that, she claimed the Champions League crown and the Club World Championship title in 2018 with VakifBank. Karakurt’s showcase as a national team player includes two EuroVolley podiums, two VNL medals and a U23 world title.

Indeed she is only 17 and has her whole career ahead to prove her worth, but not only in my opinion, she has already established herself as arguably the best server in the world. During her very first season at the senior level, Fedorovtseva quickly stationed herself as a starter in Dinamo’s squad and received the Superliga Best Server award at the end of the championship. The rising star signed her first international professional contract to transfer to Fenerbahce for two seasons. The 1.90m-tall outside immediately received a call to the national team and topped the statistical charts for serving at both the Tokyo Olympics and EuroVolley. This fall she has already hammered out 21 aces for Fenerbahce in 29 sets played in the Turkish league. Before joining the senior level, Fedorovtseva earned a number of individual continental honours at the youth and junior levels, among which the MVP award at the 2020 U17 European Championship.

In fact, Mihajlovic was just one of three big incoming international transfers for Vero Volley. The club from Monza was also joined by her fellow Serbian Katarina Lazovic, coming in from Poland’s LKS Commercecon Lodz, and Poland’s Magdalena Stysiak from Savino Del Bene, and each of these moves rightfully deserves a place in this ranking, but they yield to the most experienced and most distinguished player of the three.

Despite her absence from the last edition of EuroVolley, 30-year-old Mihajlovic is an important member of Serbia’s golden generation, which won the previous two editions of the European Championship, the 2018 World Championship and two Olympic medals, among others. Her Dream Team nomination at the Rio 2016 Olympics is just one of many individual awards the 1.90m-tall outside has earned in her career. However, her best result in the Champions League was “just” a bronze she earned during her first period with Fenerbahce in 2016 and she will definitely be eager to do better with her new Italian team. Interestingly, Mihajlovic has never played for a Serbian club. She started her club career in her native Bosnia & Herzegovina and moved through teams from Switzerland, South Korea, France, Brazil, Japan, Turkey and China, leaving a trail of success everywhere she went, before landing in Italy for the first time this year. Her best result at the club level was the Club World Championship silver she claimed in 2014 with Brazil’s Molico Osasco.