After two seasons with Pallavolo Padova Padua, Japanese star Ran Takahashi is changing clubs in Italy. The 21-year-old outside hitter will play for Vero Volley Monza during the 2023-2024 season. He is part of the new squad the club announced for the upcoming challenges.

The 1.88m-tall Japanese international contributed to his national team’s improving results in recent years, such as the seventh place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the silver medals at the 2021 Asian Championship or the fifth place in Volleyball Nations League 2022. Takahashi joined the Ryujin Nippon at the age of 19 and immediately left a great impression. His performance at the Tokyo Olympics in particular earned him a membership badge for the ‘fab three’ of Japanese volleyball, reconfirmed by him joining Yuki Ishikawa and Yuji Nishida in the Italian league in December 2021, while still in college and competing for the Nippon Sport Science University team. At such a young age, the charismatic athlete is already enjoying an iconic status among Japanese and international fans, confirmed by the almost 1.2 million followers of his Instagram account.

Canadian international outside Eric Loeppky and French opposite Ibrahim Lawani are the other two new foreign additions to Vero Volley’s roster. Both of them transferred from Gioiella Prisma Taranto. In Monza, Loeppky will be in the company of compatriots Stephen Maar and Arthur Szwarc.

In addition, Brazilian playmaker Fernando Kreling, Croatian setter Petar Visic and Finnish outside Luka Marttila are also staying with the team, along with some well known Italian names like middle blockers Thomas Beretta and Gianluca Galassi. The most notable departures from the club are those of German athletes Gyorgy Grozer and Jan Zimmermann, as well as Valsa Group Modena bound Belarusian outside Uladzislau Davyskiba.

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