Dinamo KAZAN, winner of last year’s Russian Cup and national league, will debut this coming November 30 in the 2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League with a home match against the Czechs of VK Modranska PROSTEJOV. The club is returning to the European arena after competing – under the denomination of Kazanochka KAZAN – in the Challenge Cup some 4 years ago. By that time the Russians had failed to make it through the 8th finals by losing at the golden set to Romania’s Unic LPS PIATRA-NEAMT.
Since then pretty much has changed, and not only the name of the club, but especially its goals and potential. Last year Dinamo had already signed Russian superstar Ekaterina Gamova – MVP of the 2010 FIVB World Championship in Japan – and two more great players from the national team, namely middle blocker Maria Borisenko and libero Ekaterina Kabeshova. With this group Dinamo eventually dominated the scene in all domestic competitions, including the 2010/2011 edition of the national league.   
With the only exception being Tatyana Kosheleva who has moved to Dinamo KRASNODAR, basically all top players – including US American Jordan Larson – have stayed in Kazan but additional stars were signed, like Lesya Makhno, Japan’s Megumi Kurihara, libero Elena Ezhova as well as setter and 2006 World champion Marina Babeshina (née Sheshenina), whose husband – Alexey Babeshin – plays also in Kazan for Zenit.
All these players were presented to the media via a press conference that was attended also by the club President, a prominent businessman from Tatarstan, Leonid Baryshev.    
“We have a minimum task which is to win all the competitions we are entering” says 39-year old head coach Rishat Gilyazutdinov. “I think our players are good enough to achieve such goals. There is some excitement at the moment as this will be also my personal debut in the CEV Volleyball Champions League” he adds. “It won’t be easy to take home the trophy as we also have to stay concentrated to defend our titles in the Russian competitions” comments Maria Borisenko.
Apart from VK Modranska PROSTEJOV, teams assigned by the DOL to Pool C are Atom Trefl SOPOT of Poland and Volero ZÜRICH of Switzerland.