An 18-year-old player on the Ukrainian national team has been granted Italian citizenship
Grigory Khotsevich, a product of Ukrainian volleyball, has signed his first professional contract with the senior team of the top Italian club Vero Volley Monza, which competes in Italy’s elite Super League.
Grigory is a product of the Samarivska Youth Sports School (Dnipropetrovsk region). In 2022, the promising player moved to Italy, where he initially gained experience in the youth systems of the Piemonte U-16 and Volley Parella Torino clubs.
In 2024, the athlete joined the Monza youth system (Monza U-20 team). During his time playing at the junior level in Italy, Khotsevich achieved outstanding results: he won the national youth championship three times and took home gold medals in the Junior League twice. His strong play on the youth team earned him a promotion to the senior squad.
Along with the news of the contract signing, the Italian side announced that the volleyball player had officially received Italian citizenship (he is listed in the registries as Hryhorii Khotsevych Germak) and changed his sports citizenship. This decision has serious consequences for Ukrainian sports, as the player will no longer be able to represent Ukraine’s national teams on the international stage. Khotsevych played his last match for the “blue-and-yellows” in April 2024 as part of Ukraine’s U-18 national team at the European U-18 Championship, where he scored 10 points in a qualifying match against Spain, helping the team secure an early spot in the Euro 2024 finals.
Vero Volley Monza is one of the most renowned teams in European volleyball. The team is based in Monza and plays in the Italian Super League—the world’s strongest national division. The club’s greatest achievements on the international stage include winning the European Challenge Cup (2018–19 season) and the CEV Cup (2021–22 season). Monza is well known to Ukrainian fans because Oleg Plotnytskyi, the current captain and star outside hitter of the Ukrainian national team, played for the club during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons.
This was reported on the official page of the Vero Volley Monza club.
Earlier, FIFA banned a new tactical practice ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The Ukrainian national team confidently defeated Poland in Maldera’s first match.
Ukraine national team head coach Andrea Maldera officially outlined his strategic vision for the development of the national team under his leadership.
