“I am really so happy that my dream of playing with the best in Europe is becoming a reality” stated QUADRI
By Olalekan OKUSAN ITTF Africa Press Officer
African Champion – Aruna QUADRI has scored another first as the Nigerian and African to feature in the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League this year.
QUADRI who plies his trade with Portuguese league champion – Sporting Lisbon will lead his team in the six-team championship (group stage) which kicks off in September across Europe. First game his side plays away against two times TTCLM champion AS Pontoise Cergy on September 28th.
In the seeding for the 16 teams QUADRI’s Sporting Lisbon is rated 13 as the only team from Portugal competing against star-studded teams from Germany France Russia Poland Sweden Austria Denmark and Czech Republic.
An excited QUADRI said that he cannot wait to compete in the tournament as the best players in the world feature in the lucrative league.
“I am really so happy that my dream of playing with the best in Europe is becoming a reality. It is indeed a new challenge for me because my president and coach are not really happy that we might lose early in the tournament and ended up not making it to the ETTU Cup for the third placed team in the group of four teams. They actually wanted us to play the ETTU Cup but our European ranking was good enough to qualify us for the Champions league and that was why we were included in the 16-team tournament ” he said.
