Her medical visit to Istanbul having detected a left knee injury, Helena Ciak (31 years old, 1.97 m) will ultimately not join Fenerbahçe. The pivot of the France team has therefore signed a new contract with ASVEL, the club she was preparing to leave for Turkey.
Her bags packed to leave ASVEL, Helena Ciak (31 years old, 1.97 m) will be defending the colors of… ASVEL this season. While there was talk of the French international club Villeurbannais leaving the Rhône for Turkey and the Istanbul club of Fenerbahçe, the medical examination passed by the recent bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games with the France team has indeed changed everything and forced the Dunkirk to stay in the Rhône. The battery of tests performed by Ciak in Istanbul earlier this week revealed that the player suffered from ” tear in the meniscus of the left knee« .
An injury that prevented the one who dreamed of living a second experience abroad after her two seasons at Dynamo Kursk (Russia) between 2016 and 2018 – with the key to a coronation in the Euroleague (2017) – to join Fenerbahçe, where his new contract awaited him. ASVEL did not take long to react and jump at the opportunity. Barely aware of his new duties as coach of the women’s team that the pivot of the Bleues would not wear the Fener jersey, Pierre Vincent, the successor of Valéry Domory on the Villeurbanne bench, immediately proposed to Ciak to spend a third season with the 2019 French champions (the Northerner was playing in Montpellier at the time).
Parker: “Like a member of his family coming home”
The person concerned had no real choice but to accept. To the delight of Vincent but also of his emblematic president Tony Parker, delighted that the double champion of France with Bourges (2014 and 2015) remains with the Lionesses, which she had yet to abandon. « I was very excited when Helena joined us in 2019, I’m even more excited with this comeback! It had been heartbreaking to learn of his desire for a new experience abroad in the offseason, but we respected his choice of career. But his family is here! After only two seasons in Lyon, she has forged very strong links with each player in the club. It is therefore very naturally, like a member of his family coming home, that we decided to integrate him into the group. ”Injured, Ciak should not be able to prepare immediately for the new season with ASVEL.
