Osaka veterans thrilled at prospect of playing with Alas star Bagunas
Osaka Bluteon is excited to have Alas Pilipinas captain Bryan Bagunas in the upcoming Japan SV.League season next month, especially after the prolific Filipino spiker proved his world-class worth in the country’s first-ever FIVB World Championship stint.
Despite coming off a knee injury, Bagunas emerged as the top-three scorer in the preliminary round with a total of 70 points off 61 attacks, six blocks and three aces, just three points behind tournament No. 1 Ferre Reggers of Belgium and tied with Bulgaria’s Aleksandar Nikolov.
And that has made some of his teammates at Osaka excited, considering the firepower that Bagunas will bring when the SV.League season starts.
“I think he’s a great guy. I’m very excited for the next season in Osaka,” Cuban Miguel Angel Lopez, whom Bagunas met in the World Cup, said of the Filipino. “For sure, it will be an amazing season for us.”
Japan libero Tomohiro Yamamoto marveled at his future teammate’s showing in the Worlds, hoping he could help them win an SV.League title for the first time since 2019.
“He’s a player with great jumping ability and outstanding attacking power,” Yamamoto said. “So I want to give him solid support on defense to maximize his offensive strengths, and together, we’ll work hard toward becoming SV. League champions. I’m really looking forward to playing volleyball with him.”
Bagunas is also teaming up with Japanese Masato Kai and Larry Evbade-Dan, French setter Antoine Brizard and Chinese middle blocker Peng Shikun, who all campaigned in the Manila Worlds, as well as superstar Yuji Nishida, who missed Ryujin Nippon’s campaign.
The 6-foot-5 outside spiker started playing in Japan with Oita Miyoshi in 2019 until 2022, before he took his act to Taiwan and won two championships for WinStreak Club in the Top Volleyball League in 2023 and 2024.
Bagunas was super proud of how the Philippine campaign went, as the Filipinos barely missed advancing to the round of 16.
“This World Championship will always be remembered not for how it ended, but for how much we fought, how much we believed and how much we grew together as Team Alas Pilipinas,” Bagunas said.
“Pilipinas, this one is for you,” Bagunas said. “To all the Filipinos who supported us, cheered for us and gave us strength, you were our biggest source of strength during our toughest moments. Even though we didn’t get the ending we wanted, we still carried the pride of the Philippines on that court.”
