Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto begin their seventh Asobal pre-season

On 1 August, the Valencian red-and-whites' 2016–2017 project gets under way. They will play seven matches before their league debut at O'Gatañal against BM Cangas

Nikola Milos's players Nikola Milos are counting down the hours until they begin working on Monday, at the start of August, amid the summer conditions of the Ovni and the Valencian Mediterranean. From 18:30 they will begin the customary photo session, and the Mayor of Sagunto, Quico Fernández, will give them the traditional welcome at 19:30on the Ovni's blue court.

Milos will already have compulsory absences and several new faces at this first gathering. Brazilian pivot Alex Pozzer will compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with the Canarinha and will not be available to the Croatian coach until well into August. The other Brazilian signing, Fernando Pacheco, will arrive sooner. He has been granted a few days' leave by the club because, although he is not competing in the Olympics, Pacheco is a Carioca handball legend and one of the Olympic torchbearers, so he will arrive in Valencia on the 4th. Also present at the start, but then returning to the Spanish youth team's training camp, will be the young Juan Antonio Sario, who will compete in the European Championship for the age group with the Hispanos. The signings Spiljak and Ángel Pérez de Inestrosa will already be available to the manager on Monday, as will the rest of the renewed players, although Berrios is still recovering from his knee injury.

Fertiberia have confirmed 16 players for their Asobal squad. Alongside them, Nikola Milos has called up four youngsters who will begin pre-season training before their reserve-team colleagues, looking for an opportunity in the first team. They are left-handers Chema Piró and Carlos Cebrián, left-back Angel Lopez and a new addition to the red-and-whites' reserve team, Alicante pivot from CD Agustinos, Ivan Montoya, a promising international who is coming to study in Valencia and joining the red-and-white project.

In addition to training sessions and the team's customary participation in the 49th Volta a Peu organised by CD Camp de Morvedre, Nikola Milos has planned seven matches.

The first will be in Cuenca on the 17th, with Cuenca returning the visit to the Ovni on the 24th. On the 26th and 28th, Fertiberia will take part in the international tournament organised by BM Benidorm, a triangular competition in which they will face the hosts, BM Benidorm, on the 26th, and on Sunday the 28th, a major opponent in the form of Sporting de Lisboa, managed by Zupo Equisoain and led by Spanish international Carlos Ruesga. Two days later, they will visit Granollers, before returning to the Ovni on 1 September to face Primera Nacional side Maristas Algemesi.

The final fixture before their debut against BM Cangas on the weekend of 10 September will be the first official title at stake: the Copa Comunitat Valenciana, which this year will be held in Benidorm on Sunday 4 September, from 19:30, against the other Valencian Asobal team, nearby BM Benidorm.

Seven matches and many training sessions to fine-tune the mechanisms of this exciting Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto, who hope to begin the first half of the league as they finished the previous one, with spectacular figures they aim to maintain throughout the 2016–2017 season.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.