The club Zenit Kazan has been the focus of significant media speculation regarding their roster moves over the past few weeks. And it makes sense. The club from Russia is having perhaps the most dominant stretch we have ever seen from a men’s volleyball club, winning 3 of the past 4 champion’s leagues and the most recent club world championships as well as 4 straight domestic league titles. Fans of the team now have one less thing to worry about though, as American outside hitter Matt Anderson declared on his Instagram that he has signed a contract to return to Kazan for the 2018-2019 season.
Matt Anderson is one of the top outsides and players in the world, so you would expect there to be quite a bidding war to enlist him. Zenit Kazan has proven once again though that their professionalism and large wallets allow them to retain top players for a significant period of time. This will be Matt Anderson‘s 7th season with the team, which is much longer than the typical stint in men’s volleyball. While the exact details of the contract have not been released, given Kazan’s reputation for handing out lucrative deals and Matt Anderson‘s stature in international volleyball, we can be fairly confident that it is north of $500,000 for the season. Matt Anderson also occupies the unique position of being one of the few male volleyball players who are marketable to a North American audience and has numerous endorsements.
We reported earlier this week on rumours that Wilfredo Leon has already decided to stay with Kazan as well, and this news only increases the likelihood that this is true. Leon is almost impossible to replace from a talent perspective, so unless Kazan has a superstar waiting to sign it seems unlikely they would spend on Matt Anderson without some sort of confirmation that Wilfredo would also be returning to the team. The duo has been practically unbeatable the past few years together, so clubs all around Europe feverishly await news on further roster moves from Kazan.
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