Ukrainian volleyball player escaped from a Turkish club because of a Russian teammate

Timofei Poluyan, a player from the Turkish club Hekimoglu and the Ukrainian national team, was forced to leave the team when he was banned from playing in the same club with Russian Aleksey Nalobin at home.

Poluyan moved to Hekimoglu on January 14, and already on the night of January 16 he left the team from Bursa without notifying the club.

“According to the information given to us by Poluyan’s manager, we received a call from the Volleyball Federation of Ukraine. The athlete was asked to leave the team due to the fact that we have a Russian player (Aleksey Nalobin). It was reported that they would never allow their players to play in a team with the Russians, and if he did not leave, he would no longer be allowed into the national team and his license would be canceled, Hekimoglu said in a statement.

The Turkish club also spoke about the proposal of the Ukrainian federation to abandon the Russian Nalobin, offering instead of him “another player”.

“We stated that we would not participate in such an event, which is completely contrary to the spirit of the sport, and demanded that the contract be respected. We do not agree that athletes are tools for these dirty games, the Turkish club said in a statement.