‘As expected, the old one is the old one.’ In the 2023 V-League Men’s Foreign Player Tryout and Draft hosted by the Korean Volleyball Federation 메이저놀이터(KOVO) and held face-to-face in 4 years in Istanbul, Turkey, only three teams chose new faces.

Korean Air, Korea Electric Power Corporation, KB Insurance, OK Financial Group, and KB Insurance, including ‘defending champion’ Korean Air, chose familiar faces instead of new ones.

KOVO announced on the 8th (Korean time) whether to renew the contract with a foreign player who went to the V-League court last season.

The seven men’s teams decided whether to renew their contracts according to the changed tryout guidelines and notified KOVO on the same day. There are standards.

Among the players who played last season, only the players who applied for this tryout will decide to renew the contract. As a result, 4 out of 7 teams (Korean Air, KEPCO, OK Financial Group, KB Insurance) chose stability instead of change.

As a result, Lincoln (Australia) is Korean Air, Thais (Netherlands) is KEPCO, Leo (Cuba) is OK Financial Group, and Villena (Spain) is wearing a KB Insurance uniform and will appear on the V-League court in the 2023-24 season as well.

The three teams of Hyundai Capital, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, and Woori Card select new foreign players through a draft. The order of draft picks is based on the final performance of the previous season.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in 7th place has the largest number of marbles with 35. KB Insurance in 6th place has 30, OK Financial Group in 5th with 25, and Woori Card in 4th with 20.

3rd place KEPCO 15, 2nd place Hyundai Capital 10, and 1st place Korean Air are each given 5 marbles, and the order of nominations is determined through a lottery.

Lincoln and Leo will be with their team for three consecutive seasons. Thais will spend two seasons at KEPCO after going through Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, and Vijena will continue her relationship with the V-League by wearing a KB Insurance uniform in place of Nicola (Serbia) for one and a half seasons and last season at Korean Air.

There is a reason why many clubs have focused on players with experience in the V-League. This is because a player with skillful skills is not easily noticed.

At the tryout site, the coaching staff, most of the team secretariats, including the head coach of each club, said in unison, “It is difficult to find a player with better skills compared to the foreign players who played last season.”