The CEV Volleyball Gala, organized by the European Volleyball Confederation, which took place in Belgium’s capital of Brussels, provided the occasion to honor the sport’s biggest figures as well as its most recent accomplishments.
The Drawing of Lots for the 2023 Champions League pool stage was held in Brussels, yesterday, when a tradition that began almost three decades ago continued by awarding the most prominent volleyball players and coaches in the current year.
Starting with Kamil Semeniuk and Isabelle Haak, the male and female players of the year, the list of honorees is very amazing. The Polish outside hitter won the CEV Champions League with Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle (ZAKSA) for the second time in a row. In addition to dominating Polish competitions with his previous club, he also had great success with his country’s national team, most recently winning a silver medal at the FIVB World Championship. The Swede Haak, on the other hand, led her ex-side, VakıfBank İstanbul, toward winning a perfect five out of five titles in the 2021-22 season, besides an all-time record fifth Champions League title for the Turkish club.
The awards for Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year went to their respective former club coaches, Gheorghe Crețu and Giovanni Guidetti. The latter has won similar awards before. Meanwhile, Romanian Crețu, who was in charge of ZAKSA during the Super Finals in Ljubljana, experienced his greatest victory to date.
The 2022 CEV Volleyball Gala provided a chance to honor people who have dedicated their entire lives to improving the sport while also celebrating the accomplishments of the previous 12 months. No one needs to introduce Julio Velasco, an Argentinean who served as the coach of the Italian golden generation that dominated international volleyball in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is currently focused on developing the next “wave” of Italian volleyball players, managing a program that has already resulted in a number of gold medals at numerous European and World age-group competitions.
The 2022 CEV Volleyball Gala provided a chance to honor people who have dedicated their entire lives to improving the sport while also celebrating the accomplishments of the previous 12 months. Julio Velasco, an Argentinean who served as the coach of the Italian golden generation that dominated international volleyball in the late 1980s and early 1990s, got the CEV Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s currently focused on developing the next ’wave’ of Italian volleyball players, managing a program that has already resulted in a number of gold medals at numerous European and world age-group competitions.
Frauke Dirickx was a well-known figure; like Velasco, she was also given the CEV Lifetime Achievement Award. Her leadership of the ’Yellow Tigers’ to a historic EuroVolley bronze medal in 2013—their sole medal from a senior major international championship to date—helped pave new ground for Belgian volleyball.
