NATIONAL team standout Marck Espejo is set to play for Bahrain’s first division club Bani Jamra as its reinforcement in the 2020-21 Bahrain Volleyball League which will start on Sunday.
A three-time UAAP men’s volleyball champion from Ateneo, the 6-foot-2 Espejo has recently signed the contract with Bani Jamra SC that will last until April 2021.
Espejo left the country yesterday and will join his new club’s training this weekend. The 23-year-old Filipino spiker, who set a single-game UAAP scoring record of 55 points two years ago, however will miss the Bani Jamra’s season opener.
“Marck will not play very soon because he needs to train more with the group so he can be familiar here,” said the club in an e-mail to People’s Tonight yesterday.
The first Filipino player to play in three different club leagues overseas, Espejo had previous stints in Japan and Thailand.
A club based west of Bahrain’s capital Manama, Bani Jamra SC is among the eight teams competing in the Middle East country’s top-tier men’s volleyball competition. The club has been in Division 1 for the last 10 years.
Defending champion Al Muharraq, Al Ahly, Al Najma, Dar Kulaib, Al Nasr, A’ali and Al Busaiteen, which was promoted to the first division after winning the second division title last July, completes the cast.
A member of the Philippine men’s national volleyball team that won the historic silver medal in 30th Southeast Asian Games, Espejo led Cignal HD in sweeping the Spikers’ Turf Reinforced and Open Conference crowns last year.
The 2020 Spikers’ Turf season was not held this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
