AS Volley Lube has announced the hiring of Petar Dirlic, born in ’97, 205 centimeters tall, native of Split, for the 2024/25 championship. The Croatian athlete, with four years of Super League behind him and fresh from a season at Allianz Milano spoiled from the start by an ankle problem which was later resolved, thus completes an opposite department of quality and quantity alongside Adis Lagumdzija. Coach Giampaolo Medei can count on the two greatest scorers of the penultimate Regular Season, giants capable of scoring 828 points between them in the 2022/23 regular season with a large margin over their rivals: 409 for the Croatian international, 419 for the Turkish international.
Raised in his homeland in the Mladost Kastela youth academy, which then saw him as a protagonist in the first team, Dirlic won seven consecutive national titles in his career between Croatia (4) and Slovenia (3), distinguishing himself beyond the borders of his own country with the shirt of Ljubljana, with whom he won, in addition to the three Scudetti, three Slovenian cups and two Mevza Cups (international competition of Eastern European teams).
The Italian experience began with a taste of the Super League among the ranks of Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia in 2020/21, and then took a very important step in the following two years with Top Volley Cisterna, years in which the Croatian attacker showed all the shots in the repertoire, accumulating points and standing out for his great solidity on the block. The aforementioned ankle injury did not allow Petar to start the 2023/24 tournament in top form with Allianz Milano, which however ended with third place and a historic pass for the Milanese team for the Champions League. The striker is back to his levels and wants to prove it. Worth mentioning, between the experience in the Pontine area and that in Lombardy, is the parenthesis in Qatar with the Police Union team, which was worth the conquest of the national cup.
The new entry from Lube, who blew out 27 candles last week, is struggling with his country’s selection in the European Golden League. After the bronze medals in 2022 and 2023, thanks to an excellent start, Petar aims to reach the Challenger Cup to pursue qualification for the 2025 VNL.
In Civitanova Dirlic reunites with Barthelemy Chinenyeze and Giovanni Gargiulo, his teammates during the year in Vibo Valentia.
Beppe Cormio (dg AS Volley Lube): “The hiring of Dirlic enriches the roster. Here comes an athlete who in the last year, despite having benefited from few opportunities to shine in Milan, due to some initial problems and the explosion of his teammate, has achieved a good haul of points in the games granted. Having Dirlic and Lagumdzija in the team, the two best scorers of the penultimate season, who two years ago fought almost on equal terms, trailing everyone, is a great enrichment and on paper is a guarantee of a high-performance attack. Among other things, Petar is a boy who knows how to work as a team, literally a ‘locker room man’, young at 27 years old, but very mature and able to give excellent support to his teammates.”
