For the first time in the history of the women’s professional volleyball team, a foreign setter was born. The main character is Ponpun Gedpard (30, Thailand, photo), who will play for IBK Industrial Bank. IBK Industrial Bank nominated Phonpun, the captain of the Thai national team, after winning the first overall nomination in the Asian Quarter Draft of the Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO) held in a non-face-to-face manner on the 21st.
In the men’s division, Woori Capital (now Woori Card) once entrusted the coordination of attacks to Vlado (40, Serbia) in the 2009-2010 season. However, in the women’s division, all 84 foreign players who played before were strikers.
IBK Industrial Bank coach Kim Ho-cheol, a former national setter, said, “Ponpun is a player suitable for the fast-pattern attack that our team pursues. He said, “I was planning to play ‘moving volleyball’ in the new season, but I was lucky to be able to bring Ponpun in the first place.”
Last season, Pontun, who played for Rapit Bucharest in the Romanian league with Lee Da-young (27, former Heungkuk Life Insurance), said, “I want to learn Korean quickly and get along with the players. She loves Korea very much, so I’m looking forward to traveling there as well.” Ponpun will join IBK Industrial Bank as soon as the Thai national team schedule is over.
Unlike the existing foreign player system,안전놀이터 the Asian quota is a new system that selects one player per team only from 10 Asian countries. The women’s team selected players non-face-to-face because of the national team schedule, but the men’s team will conduct a tryout (public player evaluation) and draft at Jeju Halla Gymnasium on the 25th and 27th. Asian quarter players receive an annual salary of 100,000 dollars (approximately 132.9 million won) regardless of gender.