Volleyball stars shine like diamonds on stage of European Volleyball Gala

The 2017 edition of the European Volleyball Gala held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow on Friday night was an opportunity to celebrate a number of major Volleyball and Beach Volleyball stars, who have left their mark throughout the 2017 season and added further accolades to their already impressive resumes. Such awards reflect the CEV’s vision to put an emphasis on star players as these can inspire the young generations to take up the sport and represent role models to look up to on and off the court as well. 

These are the Volleyball leaders, players and coaches, who stood on the stage of the European Volleyball Gala on Friday in the Russian capital, as they received awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements:

Male Volleyball Player of the Year 
Maxim Mikhailov (RUS) – A multiple gold medallist and three-time in a row winner of the CEV Volleyball Champions League, Mikhailov is also an Olympic champion from London 2012 and a double European champion in 2013 and 2017. This year, he received the MVP award at the Men’s Champions League Finals in Rome as well as at the EuroVolley in Krakow.

Female Volleyball Player of the Year
Tijana Boskovic (SRB) – The MVP and gold medallist from the 2017 women’s EuroVolley in Azerbaijan / Georgia with the Serbian national team, she is also bronze medal winner from the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League with Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL. Boskovic became a ’senior’ European champion in 2017 at the age of 20, only three years after taking that same honour in the U19 age group.  

Kings of the Beach 
Paolo Nicolai / Daniele Lupo (ITA) – Nicolai and Lupo are three-time European champions – they first won the title in Cagliari in 2014 before taking two straight continental crowns in 2016 and this past August to follow on their historic silver medal from the Rio Olympics. After taking European gold in Jurmala, they ended the 2017 season on a high note by taking bronze at the World Tour Finals in Hamburg, thus becoming the highest-ranked European team in that competition. 

Women’s Team Coach of the Year 
Giovanni Guidetti (ITA) – Guidetti took VakifBank ISTANBUL to a clean sweep of this season’s top international honours, winning both the CEV Volleyball Champions League and Club World Championship earlier this year within just a few weeks. Guidetti has also won a medal at each of the last four editions of the women’s European Championship – silver with Germany in 2011 and 2013, again silver with the Netherlands in 2015 and bronze with Turkey earlier this year in Baku.

Men’s Team Coach of the Year 
Vladimir Alekno (RUS) – Alekno helped Zenit KAZAN win their third straight Champions League title back in April, thus equalling the feat achieved by TRENTINO Volley in 2009-2011, as the Russians dominated the competition from start to end losing only two sets along the way. They did just the same in the Russian national league, winning that competition as well without losing a single match. Under Alekno’s guidance, Zenit KAZAN have won the CEV Volleyball Champions League a record four times (2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017) and steered Russia’s national team to Olympic gold in 2012 and to a European title one year later. 

Special award for outstanding achievement in age-group competitions
Maria Voronina/Mariia Bocharova (RUS) – At 15 and 17 years of age, Voronina and Bocharova chiefly contributed to Russia’s clean sweep of all gold medals at stake at this year’s age-group European Beach Volleyball Championships. They first won gold on home soil in Kazan in the U18 competition before repeating that same feat two weeks later in Vulcano in the U20 tournament. They rounded off the 2017 season with two gold medals from their first ’senior’ events, a EEVZA zonal tournament in Batumi, Georgia and a CEV-EEVZA Satellite held in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Lifetime Achievement Award 
Carlo Magri (ITA) – The President of the Italian Volleyball Federation from 1995 to February 2017 and CEV Honorary Vice-President, Magri is the man behind Italy’s rise to the world’s Volleyball elite – as well as the man who oversaw the organisation of many major international events in that country. These include – to name just a few – the 2010 men’s and 2014 women’s World Championships, not to forget the 2005 men’s European Championship, the first ever such tournament co-hosted by two countries (Italy and Serbia & Montenegro). 

CEV Event of the Year 
LOTTO EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 – The President of the Polish Volleyball Federation, Mr Jacek Kasprzyk, received the award in recognition of the huge success achieved with the organisation of the 2017 men’s European Championship. The “Volleyball party of the year” started on August 24 at PGE National Stadium in Warsaw with a solemn Opening Ceremony and a thrilling Opening Match featuring the national teams of Poland and Serbia before a 65,407-strong crowd, an all-time record in European Volleyball history.

FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° was among the many guests of honours, including representatives from National Federations and clubs, CEV sponsors and partners, as well as high-ranking Russian political and sporting authorities who attended the 2017 European Volleyball Gala.

If you want to see all the videos of the 2017 CEV European Volleyball Gala, go here.