No way out for Chinese volleyball players to play abroad?

Wang Chen——the first Chinese volleyball player who joined Italian Men’s Volleyball League.

Different from soccer and basketball, few players go out to high-level volleyball league in Europe. Only Wang Yimei and Wang Chen as the top players in China joined European clubs. So is it really a way to go “out”?

Two explorers—Wang Yimei and Wang Chen

After participation in Beijing and London Olympic Games, Wang Yimei has gradually fade away from National Team since 2013. As Zhou Zhihua, original coach or China Men’s Volleyball said, “Wang Yimei is elder than new players and not suitable for the National Team. Therefore, going abroad could activate herself.” While as for Wang Chen, it is a different situation. The team he stays has introduced foreign players. Under the situation that he could not always serve as a lead player, he went out to learn something new, which was good for himself.

Horizon Widening—both “bringing in” and “going out”

With development of volleyball league, since Evergrade Women’s Volleyball, “foreign aid” has become an important part. A batch of top players like Savani joined in domestic volleyball match.

However, with respect to “going out”, the step of Chinese volleyball is quite slow. After the high-level league in Europe for one season, Wang Chen said frankly that he had learnt a lot.

Confusion—commercial value instead of actual ability prevails

On the issue of playing abroad, most of Chinese players would face many problems and dilemmas. Many previous players went to low-level leagues in other countries like Vietnam, in which not much value could be gained. Besides the less demands of volleyball market, the truly good players could hardly go out for local Chinese clubs and sponsors would not let them go.

Even though volleyball players successfully go out for playing, their purposes will also be doubts. Because of the coming of Wang Chen, a new Chinese advertisement was attached to the clothing of Italian Men’s Volleyball. The insiders of the club told the journalist without withholding information, “Because of his coming, we start to cooperate with the local Chinese enterprise, and for the first time, they begin to sponsor our club. Furthermore, we both hope that we could have the chance to cooperate with the companies in Beijing.” 

As a whole, it requires braveness and intelligence of players to go out for playing, but on this long journey, they still need more experiences.