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Andria Bitadze, a player of the Georgian national team, is a newly confirmed reinforcement for Ortigia.
The 26-year-old center-forward arrived in Syracuse from Greece. In the past season, he played for Panionios.
He left Georgia in 2013 when he was just 16. His first foreign club was Jadran Herceg Novi. After two years in Montenegro, he moved to Barcelona. He left Spain in 2015 and, after that, played for Roma and Crvena Zvezda. Bitadze returned to his homeland in 2019 and joined Dinamo Tbilisi. His next destination was Greece and Panionios in the season 2022/23. He won 4th place in the Greek Championships and now returns to Italy.
Bitadze has a long experience playing in the Champions League and the major water polo competitions. He has played at the European championships four times (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022), at the 2021 World League Super Final, and at the 2022 World Championships.
The Georgian will replace Serbian center-forward Petar Velkic, who left Ortigia and will probably continue his career outside Italy. Ortigia has said goodbye to three players after the end of the season: Simone Rossi (moved to OSC), Stefan Vidovic (went to Sabadell) and Velkic.
Before Bitadze's arrival, Ortigia confirmed the signing of the contract with Luca CupidoÂ
