Olympic medallist Pereyra strengthens UPCN

Federico Pereyra will be the only member of the Argentinean men’s national team that won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics to appear in the country’s domestic league after the 33-year-old opposite signed with UPCN San Juan.

Pereyra, who had been playing overseas since 2019, started the 2021-2022 club season with Iran’s Shahdab Yazd but decided to end his contract with the Asian club and return to his hometown San Juan, where he signed with UPCN.

“I was supposed to return to Iran on December 30 but due to family reasons, staying home was the right thing to do,” he said in an interview to Argentinean website Ole. “I’ll finish the season in San Juan and will be able to be with my wife, who’s four and a half months into her pregnancy, and I’m really happy with that decision.”

Eight-time Argentinean champions UPCN, who are fresh from a fifth-place finish at the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship, will be Pereyra’s sixth club in Argentina. He also played for UPCN’s rivals Bolivar Voley and Obras de San Juan.

The explosive opposite has had two stints with the Argentinean national team, with the first of them, between 2009 and 2014, granting him his first Olympic appearance, at London 2012. He returned to the squad in 2019 and made it to the Tokyo games, where he got to share his Olympic experience with his younger sister Fernanda, who represented Argentina in beach volleyball.

After finishing second in both the Argentinean Supercup and the Copa Centenario and third in the Argentinean Cup, UPCN are set to the debut in the country’s national league on January 6, against Defensores de Banfield.