By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino volleyball star Marck Espejo will be back on duty as an Asian import overseas after signing with Japan V. League club Kubota Spears Osaka.
It was the Kubota Spears management who announced Espejo’s arrival with their franchise via a social media post on their official X account.
After a brief stint with the Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler club last 2018, Espejo will be returning to Japan and showcase his talent once again.
Before agreeing to a contract with the Osaka-based volleyball club, Espejo first flaunted his volleyball wizardry in Korea where he led the Incheon Korean Air Jumbos to a championship title several months ago.
After that tremendous outing in Korea, Espejo’s draft stock once again rose and attracted numerous offers from several international volleyball clubs.
However, Espejo chose to return to Japan as he was already familiar with the style of how they play the game including the tournament environment.
Espejo is fresh off a Spikers’ Turf campaign in the Philippines but failed to steer the Criss Cross franchise to a title when they fell at the hands of the Cignal HD Spikers in the grand finals.
During that intense championship series, Espejo rekindled his old rivalry with his friend, Bryan Bagunas, who also returned home to reinforce the HD Spikers in the All-Filipino Conference.
Now that the next Spikers’ Turf Conference still has no fixed timetable, Espejo decided to fly to Japan and help Osaka improve its standings in the unified V. League phase.
