Motor boosted by the first Spaniard in Ukraine

After the winter break, Ukrainian champions HC Motor Zaporozhye presented two new players. 27-year-old left-handed Nikolay Stetsyura signed a contract until the end of the 2014/2015 season. Key player of Ukrainian national team played in for Portovik and ZTR, French side Saint-Raphael and last season he was under the wings of present Motor's coach Sergey Bebeshko in Dinamo Minsk.

Stetsyura began the season with Minsk, which contended in the VELUX Champions League, which means he cannot compete in the competition with his new club.

However, the first Spaniard in Ukraine, Ángel Perez de Inestrosa Palomares, will be able to play in the away match against Zagreb in Round 8 of the VELUX Champions League on 8 February.

The 27-year-old playmaker joined Motor until the end of the season from BM Aragon. The Spanish international has also had spells at Ciudad Real, Labaro and Globalcaja.

“I received a good offer from Motor therefore, so I had no doubts about accepting it.

“This is the first experience to play for a club abroad and I already managed to feel that training process in Zaporozhye is more difficult than in Spain.

“I'm not worrying about language barrier. Our coach speaks Spanish clearly. I care more about the process of quick adaptation.

“Hopefully very soon one of my dreams in sport comes true – to play in the Champions League,” said Ángel Perez.

Motor's head coach Sergey Bebeshko knows the potential of Ángel Perez first hand. They worked together in Labaro Toledo in 2008/2009 and won promotion to Spain’s top division.

“Since then Ángel has only got stronger. During the last three seasons he finished in the top-five scorers of the Spanish league,” said Bebeshko.

Curiously, there are nine players in Motor now, with whom Bebeshko worked in the past (Koshevoy, Titov. Evdokimov, Skopintsev, Onufrienko, Ostroushko, Shevelev, Stetsyura and Ángel Perez as well).  

At the same time HC Motor director Gennadiy Kasay confirmed that Mikhail Tsap and Alexey Kamanin have left the club.

“Our team has to always be moving forward. I want to thank to former captain Mikhail Tsap who considerably helped our team and also to Russian Alexey Kamanin who has decided to end his playing career.

“In general we are satisfied with the results of our work in the past years and particularly in 2013, the first time we won both the national cup and championship,” concluded Kasay.

At EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark Motor had four players (Skopintsev, Aflitulin, Evdokimov for Russia and Titov for Belarus) in action.

Unfortunately Belarusian pivot Titov injured during the tournament. He underwent surgery on 28 January on his meniscus and approximately will return on the court after about six weeks. On the same day Egor Evdokimov engaged in the first full training session after his ankle injury in national team of Russia on EHF EURO 2014.

During the break Motor has celebrated victory against Bundesliga team Lemgo (41:36) and unfinished match with second division side Grosswallstadt where Bebeshko’s side left the court after 45 minutes. The Ukrainian champions completed their preparation in Belarus with two wins over HC Meshkov Brest, 39:33 and 27:22.    

After seven matches in Europe’s elite competition Motor hold third place in Group A and one victory from the remaining three matches will guarantee their place in the Last 16.