Domestic volleyball FA market full of star players

Domestic volleyball FA market full of star players. March. 31, 2018 07:32. by Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com.
Domestic volleyball teams will likely stage intense competition to outfox rivals and recruit competitive players in the free agent market for men’s professional volleyball league in the next season. Those players are semi-superstar players who can instantly elevate teams’ performance and rankings, given that they are now freer to move to other teams due to the introduction of a “FA grading system.”

Among the players who have become free agents for the first time, Jeon Kwang-in (27) of the team KEPCO, stands out. Jeon joined KEPCO in 2013 to serve as main striker, and has grown to become a member of Korea’s national team. He ranks eighth (534 points, ranking third among Korean players) in attacks, and ninth in general attacks (50.56 percent, fifth among Korean players), ranking among the highest in most of the attack indicators. He also ranks first (2.664 per game per set) in the receive category in his team. Other players who will likely be highly sought after include Song Myung-geun (26) and Lee Min-gyu (27), founding members of OK Savings Bank who led their team to a leading team, and Lee Kang-won (28) of KB Insurance.

With the FA grading system having been introduced in Korea for the first time this year, more players will likely move to other teams in the FA market. A-group players, who earn an annual salary of 250 million won (235,000 U.S. dollars) or more, will be subjected to the conventional rule (200 percent of the annual salary a player earned in his previous team plus one compensatory player, or 300 percent of the annual salary he earned in the previous team). However, B-group players, who earn 250 million won (235,000 dollars) or less, are required to pay 300 percent of the annual salary a player earned to previous team without the new team having to release a player. A team, which had to release an ace-grade player when recruiting a free agent, can now recruit a semi-superstar player without shouldering significant burden.