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Perugia hired Lehtonen

31.8.2009

The most successful volleyball player of Finland, Riikka Lehtonen, will continue her career in the Italian top team Perugia. Contract is for one season. Perugia became the best choise after negotiations with the French team Cannes ended. - I wanted to go to Italy or France already from the spring so I am happy that my dream came thru. Perugia has been the best team in Italy from the middle of 2000-century. Long CV includes for example Champions League gold 2006 & 2008, CEV cup gold in 2005 & 2007, Italian championships gold 2005 & 2007 and also Italian cup gold 2005 & 2007. Last season Perugia got Champions League bronze but Italian league went under expectations. Perugia was 6th after regular season and ended the season already in the quarter finals. - Now the minimum goal is to be 5th and gain the Euro cup place. International games bring always a great extra to the season. It is unfortunate that we will miss it this season, Lehtonen says. There has been big changes in Perugia because of the last year´s disappointments. From the old foreign players will continue only Ukranian middle blocker Jevgenia Dushkevits. Emanuele Sbano is the coach of Perugia. He was in the past the assistant coach of the Italian national team. Lehtonen, 30, will start already her 11th season in a row abroad. Perugia is the 4th Italian club for her. Previous clubs were Vicenza (2004-05), Bergamo (2005-06) and Pavia (2008). Last season Lehtonen had a surprising club change before the christams when Greek club Olympiakos hired the hard hand spiker from Paviasta. Lehtonen has also played in France, Japan, Turkey and Greek. She played this summer beach volley with a young talent Taru Lahti. Cooperation went great. Last weeks Lehtonen has been training with Korson Veto men\'s team. Coach Jouko Lindberg was happy to take Lehtonen to trainings of the men\'s 1st division. SLEL

Lehtonen got silver from the Greek league

8.5.2009

Riikka Lehtonen ended her season in the Greek Olympiakos with the biggest number of changements during her career. Chaotic season ended to an enourmous disappointment when Olympiakos lost Greek championships against their biggest enemy Panathinaikos. Panathinaikos wan all three finals clearly 3-0. Fifth gold in a row was wan for them in their home court 25-20, 25-19, 25-20. - We could have challenged them as individuals but we were never able to build up a solid group. Pressure to success forced the management of Olympiakos to change their head coach five times. - With this we propably go to Guinness World Records book. Situation did not calm down in any moment of the season, told Lehtonen. Lehtonen was really disappointed after finals. Efficiency of the Finnish spiker dropped down more than normal in the desperate situation. In the third final she scored 6 points. - I\'m physically in a very good condition but you can\'t fight games with one or two players against the team like Panathinaikos. I must be happy that my abdominals, which have disturbed me in the last two years, are now ok and I didn\'t have any problems with them during the season. Future of Lehtonen is still totally open. - For sure I will continue my career but don\'t know yet where. Let\'s think about this carefully. *SLEL