Brussels, Jan 20 (IANS): Just over an year after announcing his international retirement as a player, Belgian Jean-Michel Saive has announced his willingness to run for the presidency of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

"Having announced my intention to run for the ITTF presidency, I have received an impressive amount of positive feedback from the table tennis world and the sport community in general. This encouraged me to formally announce that I am running for the presidency of the ITTF for the period 2017-2121," the 47-year-old told Xinhua news agency on Thursday.

"China is a country I visited enormously. I hope in the future, I will have good permanent contacts with the Chinese Table Tennis Federation to continue to evolve and grow ping," he said.

The 7-time Olympian put an end to his international career at the end of 2015. He then continued to play in club Logis Auderghem in Brussels.

The ITTF will select the new president on the sidelines of the World Championships in Dusseldorf on May 31.

Current president, German Thomas Weikert officially announced last October his intention to run again. Qatari Khalil Al-Mohannadi, vice president of the ITTF, also announced his candidacy.