Petkov in Grottazzolina

“I was speechless, I didn’t answer for a few seconds because I didn’t know what to say”. This is the effect a call from the Italian Super League has. And this is how Iliya Petkov, a Bulgarian middle blocker born in 1996, introduces himself to his new fans. Yuasa Battery is thus doubling the Bulgarian component in the team by going to France, as happened a year ago with Demyanenko, its new foreign “spot three”. Originally from Dobrich, a Bulgarian town with over 87 thousand inhabitants, Petkov is 202 centimetres tall and his experience in the Yuasa jersey will be his first in Italy, after having had important international experiences, the last of which in France in the ranks of Spacer’s Toulouse. A season with important numbers, in which between the regular season and the playoffs he returned to the top ten of the most used middle blocks in the championship, closing with 145 winning attacks (he put down 60% of the balls attacked), in addition to 22 blocks and 14 aces. Another statistical curiosity: the centre-back had the most winning serves in the playoff series, despite his team going out in the first round (quarter-finals) against Silvano Prandi’s Chaumont.