THE coach of the Chinese Taipei Under-23 women’s team believes Jaja Santiago can be a big draw in their commercial league, luring not only Taiwan-based Filipinos but also local volleyball fans.
Lin Ming-hui on Friday reiterated his interest in bringing Santiago to Chinese Taipei, saying they need a foreigner to play for one of the four teams in the league.
[See Jaja Santiago catches eye of China star after turning in best performance for Philippines]
According to Lin, their league allows two foreign players to sign with each team and the 6-foot-4 Filipina middle blocker can be an asset.
“I think she will be very popular in Taiwan,” said Lin.
“We don’t have a foreigner in our league. If we have a chance, we want to invite Jaja to join us in our league,” said Lin through an interpreter.
Santiago, however, is not inclined to accept the offer. Santiago also earlier received an offer to join the University of California-Los Angeles’ NCAA squad but she also chose to stay in the Philippines.
[See Jaja Santiago not inclined to accept offer to play for Chinese Taipei club team]
So far, Liu said most of the teams in their commercial league already have foreigners in their lineup. But after Chinese Taipei saw the Philippines play in the Asian Under-23 tilt, Liu said he won’t be surprised if more Filipino players will get offers from their local league to play in Taiwan.
“We only have one team who has a need in Taiwan (to have foreigners). (But) I think in the future, we will invite more players from the Philippines to come to Taiwan,” said Lin.
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