Simón and “el Ruso” Sánchez on Cuba's official list for next VNL

The stars Robertlandy Simón and Michael “el Ruso” Sánchez will reappear with the Cuban team in the next Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

The good news was made known after the VNL site itself revealed this Wednesday the list of 24 Cuban players registered by the Cuban Federation for the upcoming tournament, the last tournament eligible for the Olympic qualifying ranking for Paris 2024.

In addition to Simón (Piacenza of Italy) and Michael Sánchez (Minas (Brazil)), the call includes most of the team members for the last Rio 2023 Olympic Pre-Olympic, where the island performed a notable task and was on the verge of qualifying for Paris-2024.

Other stars who play in foreign leagues called up are the opposites Jesús Herrera (Perugia, Italy) and Miguel David Gutiérrez (Altekma, Turkey), the point-receivers Miguel Angel Lopez (Sada Cruzeiro, Brazil), Marlon Yant (Lube Civitanova, Italy), Jose Miguel Gutiérrez (Prisma Taranto, Italy), and center back Javier Concepción (Poitiers, France).

Cuba currently occupies eleventh place in the world ranking and is required to have a superlative performance in the VNL to achieve a place for Paris.

In the first week of the VNL, Jesús Cruz's students will face Japan, Germany, Brazil and Iran from May 21 to 26 in Rio de Janeiro.

As preparation, they will hold two friendly matches against the Argentina team, on May 17 and 18 in the city of Misiones, very close to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.