Luka Marttila is one of the six Finnish players playing in the group stage of the Men’s Volleyball Champions League.
Luka Marttila has succeeded in a rare trick for Finns. He is encouraged by the top volleyball league of the place, the Italian premier league.
Marttila moved from his home country and Hurricane to Monza already in the second season, although the responsibility was still limited then. For the last season, the Italian club loaned Marttila to Montpellier in France, where the versatile player got a lot of playing time and was able to shine.
When the invitation came back to the parent club, the masculine-oriented player has taken on a responsible role for himself in the fall.
The 21-year-old Marttila has started the majority of the seven games in the early season.
– It’s all gone. It can be seen that there are only a few games in this series. There is also a good league in France, but there are games of a slightly different level here.
Marttila says the year in France was good and feels the game experience gained is important.
– The head is really what develops every year. Finding self-confidence, and realizing that you belong in this league. It’s a pretty big deal, the 197-centimeter general player, who has established his place on the field, reflects.
Fierce competition for general player positions
With Luka Marttila in the same team and also in the same venue as general players, the rock stars of Italian volleyball Ivan Zaitsevwho also excelled in the Italian national team for years As Osmany Juanto and the star player of the German league last season Erik Röhrs.
However, Juantorena has been sidelined for weeks due to a shoulder injury. Zaitsev’s contract is valid until the end of the year.
Marttila has not looked up to the world stars too much, because they are competing for the same playing spots.
– I have competed with that German Röhrs for the second general player position. I think he is just the right level of competition partner. It’s also nice that you actually have to fight every day in training for that playing spot if you want to play on the weekend. It’s definitely not going to be easy.
Last season’s silver team Monza is currently at the tail end of Italy’s 12-team Serie A. It has won two and lost five matches.
An avalanche of Finnish players in the Champions League
For Finns, the group stage of the Champions League starting this week is historic, as no less than six Finns are playing in the toughest club team series in the volleyball world at the same time: Miika Haapaniemi in Roeselare (BEL), Niko Suihkonen in Chaumont (FRA), Fedor Ivanov in Saint Nazaire (FRA), Mikko Esko in Ach Volley (SLO), Niklas Breilin in Giesen (GER) and Marttila in Monza (ITA).
Marttila feels that Finnish volleyball is on the rise anyway.
– It feels like there are now more teams playing in Europe every season and we do better with the national team every summer. When I joined the national team, we were in the Silver League during the summer. Next, we moved up to the Golden League and last summer was again better than the previous summer.
Monza plays in the same group with Turkish Fenerbahce, German Giesen represented by Breilin and Greek Olympiakos.
The first-timer in Europeli thinks all the teams are good, but according to him, Monza should reach the top two in the group and the playoffs.
– My first goal is to get to play. Here in Italy, even the regular season games are such big events that in itself there is nothing more to prepare for the Champions League matches. You have to go all out for series games as well.
To Italy for a while. The Finn’s name is still unknown on the league’s official website. The name is written in the results service as Luke Martila.
– The name is spelled differently in each place. They like to put two L’s and one T in the last name. Now in the supercup, the name Luka Larttila was on the game pass. I don’t fix it in one place, when the next place already has a different name.
Luka Marttila’s name was spelled correctly even more often in the early season performances.