Aruna Leads Amiens in French Pro B Opener

Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna will lead Amiens STT into the French Pro B League when they host Lille Metropole TT at the Albéric-Labaume Gymnasium.

Aruna, who joined the three-time French champions in May, will make his competitive debut for Amiens as the club begins its campaign with promotion to the top division as one of its targets.

The Nigerian, ranked 80th in the world, is the highest-ranked player in the Amiens squad, which also includes Austria’s Robert Gardos, Portugal’s João Monteiro, South Korea’s Cho Seungmin and France’s Denis Dorcescu.

Monteiro is a three-time European champion, while Gardos brings extensive international experience to the team.

Aruna, who became the first African player to break into the world’s top 10, is hoping his move to Amiens will help him rediscover his best form and climb the world rankings.

‘This transfer is about rebuilding form and pushing Amiens toward promotion,’ Aruna said.

Amiens face a strong Lille side featuring Croatian world No. 50 Andrej Gacina, Ukraine’s Yaroslav Zhmudenko, Iran’s Amir Hodaei, Romania’s Rares Sipos, Madagascar’s Fabio Rakotoarimanana, France’s Romain Brard and Hungary’s Marton Szita.

Other Nigerians will also feature in the French Pro B this season.

Olajide Omotayo and Taiwo Mati will represent Le Havre ATT, who host Boulogne Billancourt AC, while former African champion Segun Toriola, serving as player-coach at Nantes, will lead his side against Frejus AMSL.

Toriola will line up alongside Egypt’s Youssef Abdelaziz and Greece’s Panagiotis Gionis.

Other African players in the division include Benin Republic’s Salifou Abdel-Kader of Compiegnois TT and Algeria’s Stephane Ouaiche, Mehdi Bouloussa and Maheidine Bella, who represent Caen TTC, Courbevoie STT and Proville ASL respectively.