League One Volleyball (LOVB), an American league, revealed the new players on the 2nd, Korean time, with the news that it has "recruited seven more outstanding players on the professional team list." The list included the name of Giovanna Milana (registered name Jia), who played for one season (23-24 seasons) in the Korean league's articles of association.

Last season, Jia joined Jeonggwanjang with the fifth overall pick in the foreign draft. Jia, who is the only team among the seven teams to have teamed up with Mega, the only Apogit Spiker, to advance to the spring volleyball league for the first time in seven seasons. Based on the 23-24 regular season, she played in 129 sets in 34 games, and achieved a cumulative 690 points and overall success rate of 43.95 percent. She ranked first overall in offense by time difference with 64.81 percent, and second overall in offense with 44.27 percent. 

However, her career in Korea ended with only one season. Jia is scheduled to play in the third professional league LOVB in the U.S., starting in November, after heading to the Indonesian league after finishing the season.

Dali Santana, who played for IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, has also been confirmed to enter the same league. LOVB said on its official SNS in March, "Dali Santana, who was a member of the Puerto Rico national team and played in the Korean V-League in the 22-23 season, has joined the LOVB League." On top of that, Andrea Drews, a former member of the U.S. women's volleyball team and a gold medal member at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was officially transferred to the LOVB League on March 22. 

The LOVB League opened as a club league in 2020 and transitioned to a professional league this year, wiping out aggressively compliance resources ahead of the first championship in April 2025.

In addition, Willow Johnson (San Diego Mojo), who played for Heungkuk Life Insurance, was selected as the "Player of the Week" by showing good performance in the PVF League.

Willow Johnson is the daughter of Randy Johnson, a legendary pitcher of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). In the U.S., he received the National Excellence Award of the Association of Volleyball Leaders (AVCA) in 2018, and has played in the Turkiye League and the Astletts Unlimited Pro League. He applied for a V-League tryout for two consecutive seasons, 22-23 and 23-24, but was not selected at the time, but joined Heungkuk Life Insurance as a substitute for Yelena Mrazenovic, making her mid-season debut.

After a short stint in Korea, Willow returned to the U.S. to join San Diego Mojo in his PVF season. Apart from the LOVB league, PVF began on Jan. 24 this year and is currently playing his first season. Currently, San Diego Mojo's setter Nootsara Tomcomb, who played with Kim Yeon-koung (Heungkuk Life Insurance) at Fenerbachche, is starting the game with Willow.

In addition, setter Ponpoon, who played for the Thai national team and IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, announced his advance to the United States and withdrew his tryout, which became an issue.

Initially, Ponpoon re-applied for the tryout in the Asian quarter, and Coach Kim Ho-chul was also forming a team on the premise of renewing his contract with Ponpoon. However, the move was inevitably turned sour as Ponpoon expressed his intention to withdraw the offer a day before the event. An informed source in the volleyball community said, "Ponpoon has offers from Brazilian and American leagues, and he is more likely to advance to the U.S. leagues." As a result, the IBK selected Chen Shintong, a 178-centimeter-tall Chinese setter, through the tryout. 

U.S. volleyball has been dominated by regional university leagues, or the National Association of University Sports, and overseas expansion was inevitable if the team wanted to start professional baseball in earnest. However, as professional leagues have recently opened one after another, options have been added for domestic leagues with better environment. As a result, the need for free foreign contracts in Korean professional leagues is increasing. Not to mention, outstanding Asian and European players who are focusing on a larger overseas transfer market can move to the U.S. 

Currently, V-League foreign players are recruited through a try-out and draft system for nine years after the 15-16 season. Both clubs and players have limited freedom. Clubs cannot bring in the player they want, and even players cannot directly negotiate with the club they want.

The same applies to the Asian quarter. Currently, the Korean league is turning to the U.S. league, where good applicants are starting to enter the offer competition, but if it maintains the current recruitment-oriented draft system, it will inevitably see players age and average levels drop. Players who are not selected from the European and U.S. leagues due to lack of skills or who are entering the aging curve due to aging will turn their attention to Korea at the end. Although the V-League has expanded its draft pool in the Asian quarter from 10 countries in the previous year to 64 countries this year, chances are high that young players with skills will gain experience for a season or two and play in the U.S. and other leagues. 

The number of foreign players in the Korean league is limited. As of the 23-24 season, a V-League can have one foreign player and one Asian quarter player for each team.

Avon Danza, the coach of Heungkuk Life Insurance, added another comment. Avon Danza said, "Korea and Japan have fewer foreign players than other leagues. More foreign players should play to enhance the competitiveness of Korean players." He also said, "Korea cannot freely contact replacement workers because the transfer market is closed in Korea." 

If the U.S. league grows in earnest, the domestic league, which is mainly focused on foreign wing strikers, will be hit hard. It is also more difficult to expect an improvement in its own level because there are no players who are active overseas in Korea. It is time for a breakthrough in any direction.

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