Barely halfway through the season, clubs are already preparing their sporting weapons for next season. After Earvin Ngapeth, Antoine Brizard should change clubs at the end of the season while Poland makes eyes at the Henno family.
Santa Claus left some nice gifts, if not some nice promises, for French volleyball players during the holidays. The well-advanced transfer window in Türkiye then gives the measure to the other major leagues (Italy and Poland in particular) which must adapt.
If we saw Ngapeth leave for Fenerbahçe after his stints in Indonesia then in Poitiers, things are moving among the Blues. Coach Andrea Giani has extended his contract with his Polish club Zaksa for two years. The French smuggler double Olympic champion Antoine Brizard should not stay in Piacenza. A time on the shelves of Polish and Russian clubs, the Blues passer should join Japan. The Osaka club Bluteon is ready to welcome him. Bluteon is the new name of the Panasonic Panthers since this season, a team coached for the last five years… by Laurent Tillie, the former coach of the Blues Olympic champions in 2021 in the land of the rising sun.
But Brizard will not be coached by the French coach next season. Indeed, Laurent Tillie has been named coach of the Japan team and he will not play in Osaka. It is Tuomas Sammelvuo who will succeed Tillie and takes Brizard with him. It will be a reunion between the two men since the Finnish coach had coached the French passer in 2020-2021 at Zenith Saint Petersburg.
Hubert Henno in Cuprum with his son Mathis
If the Blues libero Jenia Grebennikov has extended at Zénith and Sète is working to attract Benjamin Toniutti, there will be changes further west. Indeed, Poland got its hands on several tricolors. Without a club after the cessation of Nantes, Hubert Henno will find a bench. The technician will coach the Cuprum club, currently twelfth in the PlusLiga. In the town of Gorzów, Hubert Henno will find his former point guard in Nantes, Chizoba elected best player in the French championship for the last two seasons.
Definitely grateful for the work of French volleyball, Cuprum will welcome not one but two Henno. Voted best youngster in the MSL last season and centerpiece of Chaumont, Mathis Henno (20 years old in February) will find his father in Cuprum who brought him to life in Nantes. Finally, in the Henno family, we ask for Hilir: aged 21, the attacker is spending his last university year with UC Irvine. The new Californian will play in Europe next season.
Still in Poland, Stéphane Antiga will also find a bench in PlusLiga. The French coach will succeed the Italian Massimo Botti at the helm of Lublin, one of the European leaders, where star Wilfredo Leon plays. Long active on the Mathis Henno file, Lublin recruited one of the best “Central” in the Men's A League, Sétois Daenan “Kofi” Gyimah (26 years old) who has scored 142 points with Arago de Sète since the start of the season.
After Mathis Henno, the new generation of French volleyball players, world and European champions in their age group, are on the shelves of all the major European clubs. Thus Montpellier Central Joris Seddik (19 years old this Saturday January 4) should head to Italy rather than Nysa. For its part, Tourcoing will do everything to keep the man who is presented as the future passer of the Blues, Amir Tizi-Oualou. While Italy is making eyes at the young 19-year-old passer, but doors are closing (Paulo Porro will succeed Brizard in Piacenza and Kreling will take the former's place in Milan), only qualification for the TLM Champions League could allow the “little one” to stay in France. Santa Claus may still have gifts in store for spectators of the French championship who are lucky enough to have before their eyes the next generation of the Blues in Toulouse, Poitiers, Sète and elsewhere. At least for a while.
