Volleyball star Moon returns to V-League

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea Times intern

Moon Sung-min, the only foreign-based Korean volleyball player, will return to his home country to play in this season's V-League.

The Hyundai SkyWalkers said Monday it has signed the wing attacker from Turkey's Halkbank Ankara. Detailed terms and conditions were not disclosed, but the star attacker is expected to receive up to 2 billion won ($1.7 million) over five years.

"While the exact salary can't be revealed, we respected his opinion on talks regarding this five-year contract," a SkyWalkers representative said.

Moon agreed to the comeback to boost the local volleyball league, postponing his pursuit of a career overseas, he added.

The 1.98-meter player will receive a starting salary of 110 million won, the maximum for a first-year player in the league, for the upcoming season.

According to the deal, Suwon's KEPCO 45 first signed a contract with the 23-year-old Moon and traded him for two SkyWalker players _ center Ha Kyoung-min and wing spiker Lim Si-hyoung.

It appears to be a good move for KEPCO 45, as a club run by a state-owned firm could not afford Moon.

Moon is to return to Korea after two years overseas, during which time he first played for VfB Friedrichshafen of Germany. He moved to Halkbank last year.

Moon was named Most Valuable Player by the Korea Volleyball Association in 2005, and was the first pick in his college year of 2008 from among the new recruits, but refused the offer and headed for Germany instead.

The SkyWalkers, the runner-up of the 2009-2010 league championship, have been eager to acquire Moon to fill the attacking vacancy in wake of to its key player Park Chul-woo's transfer to the reigning champions Samsung BlueFangs.

Moon is currently the top scorer in the Korean team with 52 points at the ongoing World League tournament.