ES / EN
- July 5, 2025 -
No Result
View All Result
OnCubaNews
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
OnCubaNews
ES / EN
Home Sports

Cuban Stars in Italian Volleyball: Osmany Juantorena and Angel Dennis

by
  • Abraham Jiménez Enoa
    Abraham Jiménez Enoa
February 7, 2013
in Sports
0

A handful of Cuban volleyball players has reached the elite abroad. They have mingled in foreign professional clubs to break the slow cadence of Cuban amateur sport. It is a pure miscellaneous suggesting unwavering imprint, not to be hidden within the dungeons of oblivion that suddenly gushing over the setbacks trying to feed the peaceful hopes.

Being Cuban is already a trademarked, players highly prized by the main clubs, they profess being made of a luxury substance, a premonition of triumph and foreboding of outstanding shows. The unbridled fury of lurches in the air, tucked behind the frame of pure raw physical marvel and their natural Caribbean playfulness have captivated the world with their innate talent.

In particular, they have made of Italy their turf. Since the flood of Cuban players that landed in 2001 on Italian soil, this nation has become a favorite destination of many of the Cuban volleyball players who have decided to continue their careers as professionals.

Right now, the iconic face of the Italian League is a Cuban: Osmany Juantorena. He is the star player of Trentino, the four times in a row FIVB Men’s Club World Champions.  Since his arrival in Italy, the club put its eyes on him eye and didn’t let him escape. After leaving many with their mouths opened with his potential on the court, from his debut Osmani had the luxury that in just a couple of years lead his club to the top of the world. The Trentino, with Juantorena perched on the bow, won their domestic league and European Champions on two consecutive occasions. But it does not stop there; he became the undisputed leader of the team that has won all world club titles since 2009.

Taking off from behind with his spikes, the Cuban has become for many of the best volleyball player in the world today. His consistency in every game sometimes results in a display of figures of dizziness, enough for him to lead major offensive statistical lines.

  The boy from Santiago de Cuba mocks blocks whether with strength or with at concealed gestures that make the ball fall in the gaps. He rises from the line end to blast the ball and serves at the speed of light in search of corners, blocks and unabashedly defends. Osmany Juantorena has come to shore up an already established generation of Cuban players who have gone through the Italian courts.

Related Posts

Long jumper Lester Lescay during his participation in the European Team Championships

Lester Lescay: “I left Cuba because I didn’t want to spend my youth there.”

July 5, 2025
Leonor Borrell during the induction ceremony into the International Basketball Federation’s Hall of Fame held this Sunday, May 18, in Bahrain. Photo: FIBA.

Leonor Borrell, a menace on the court

May 26, 2025
Leyanis Pérez on the awards podium at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing, China. Photo: Andrés Martínez Casares/EFE/EPA.

Cuba in Top 5 at World Indoor Championships

March 25, 2025
Yoandri Betanzos achieved multiple successes in world competitions as a representative of the Cuban athletics team in triple jump. Photo: Jorge Luis Coll Untoria.

Yoandri Betanzos: “The Cuban triple jump school is the best in the world”

February 15, 2025

Older than Osmany is the lefty from Parraga, Angel Dennis. With an aura different from that of the Santiago kid, Dennis was lucky to be a member of the IVECO Palermo from 1998 to 2000 and of the national team. He was in the squad that won the only World Volleyball League for Cuba, but in 2001 he decided to leave the Cuban team and move to Italy.
 
 
After a period of inactivity he tried his luck in Qatar before returning to Italy to play with the Volley Latina. His formidable performance made him stay shortly in this club and started playing with Lube Banca Marche Macerata. Dennis excelled in this squad, got tired of winning titles and became the best player in the league.

When everybody was speaking of the portentous mulatto, the Cuban married Italian volleyball player Simona Rinieri. Despite the impact of marriage, he continued appearing in sports headlines for his own merits in courts. His unique style of serving has become iconic for the lefty from Havana.

From right to left, he runs the ball between his elongated hands while swinging his feet to the beat of a good son, before putting the ball into orbit and make it travel with a cat jump, accompanied by a powerful blow from left that triggers at a staggering pacethe ball looking for a gap in the enemy taraflex.

The image of the 7 consecutive aces scored in a match after the usual ritual was downloaded hundreds of times from YouTube. The sequence toured the world and with it the Cuban flag tattoo Dennis displays on his shoulder every time rolls up his jersey. In 2007 he was transferred to Modena where he remains until today. Angel Dennis is already a veteran, while still has the rigor of a youth.

Weeks ago   Trentino vs Modena played in the Italian League. It boasted a duel between two of the best players in the world, two Cubans, one left-handed, another right-handed, from Santiago and Havana, experience and youth. But, a botch of fate, a blunder or just some random chance, did not want the meeting to take place. According to the website of the contest, a muscle injury prevented Juantorena from facing his comrade.
 

 

  • Abraham Jiménez Enoa
    Abraham Jiménez Enoa
Previous Post

Carlos Acosta: Leading Writer

Next Post

Vallejo and I

Abraham Jiménez Enoa

Abraham Jiménez Enoa

Next Post

Vallejo and I

The Charangón of Cuba moves like a steamroller

It will seem that you're gone...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Read

  • Flags of Cuba and the United States, seen in perspective in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

    Trump reinstates hard-line Cuba embargo as Havana condemns US measure as “criminal”

    18 shares
    Share 7 Tweet 5
  • CIA documents revealing attempts to assassinate Fidel and Raúl Castro declassified

    48 shares
    Share 19 Tweet 12
  • The Enchanted Shrimp of the Cuban Dance

    3057 shares
    Share 1223 Tweet 764
  • A sanctuary for jazz in Cuba: César López’s dream

    8 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • A visit to what we were

    8 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2

Most Commented

  • Photo: Kaloian.

    Private sector and tourism in Cuba. Why not?

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • About us
  • Work with OnCuba
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy for comments
  • Contact us
  • Advertisement offers

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}