Samanta Fabris
The captain of the Croatian national team, Samanta Fabris, from the distant and cold Kazan, from the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, can hardly wait to gather with her teammates from the national team, and this year’s volleyball events, which will not be missed.
„I am looking forward to the summer and preparations in Zadar, I just hope that everything will be planned and maintained and that organizational problems due to the coronavirus pandemic will no longer be relevant then. Also, I personally and all the girls from the national team wish that the stands in Zadar be full of our fans, whose support will mean a lot to us. The fans are our surplus player in the national team, they give us extra wind in the back, and together with them we will certainly provide unforgettable games“, – says Samantha, who turned 29 on February 8.
She mentioned the summer full of competitions, which begins with two tournaments of the Golden League of the European League, from May 28 to June 6, in the Czech Republic and Belarus, with the scheduled Final Four from June 18 to 20 in Bulgaria. This is followed by the Challenger Cup in Zadar, from June 30 to July 4, and especially, as the crown of the season, one of the groups of the European Championship, also in Zadar, from 19 to 26 August.
„A lot of games, a lot of competitions, a lot of training, but somehow we all longed for the representative actions that escaped us last year due to Covid 19 when the whole world stopped. The last time we gathered was in January 2020 in the Netherlands at the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but we were not good there. In fact, our competitions are now ranked in order of importance, the European League will be a preparation for the Challenger Cup as a qualification for the World League and finally the European Championship, from which we expect a lot. In the past, we showed that we are a young team with a great future ahead of it. We will miss the continuity of work because we did not meet last year, but as we missed the summer, so do the others, so we will not complain.“
Captain of the Croatian national team is not the type of person who pulls herself out and looks for an alibi, who is bothered by everything, including the current temperature in Kazan.
„I’ve been here for two years, and another one according to the contract, so I got used to it, even though it wasn’t easy at first. These days it’s around -28, with a feeling of coldness -40, and the most I’ve experienced has been, if I’m not mistaken, -35. You can get used to it, but you can’t get used to it. It is also difficult to imagine the normal functioning of life at these temperatures, say, driving from home to the gym and back. I drive an SUV, my parking lot is in the building, so it’s not terrible, and the cars here have a great application that I intend to install in the car when I get home. Namely, about 15 minutes before I plan to go anywhere, I turn on the heating in the car and the engine via the application, which then warms up while I sit inside.“
Samanta has no problems with the Russian language, and she also gives interviews in Russian.
„That’s right, I gave some interviews in Russian, although I’m not completely satisfied yet. Basically, no one complains about my Russian. How could they complain when the trophies arrived at the club with Samantha, four in the last two years. Two Super Cups, Cup and Championship. We are currently second in the championship, but we still have to meet for first place with Moscow’s Dinamo. Although, in the end, the Final Six is played, so we subordinated everything to that after we dropped out of the European Champions League, where, to say the least, we didn’t really show up. Simply, we were not recognizable in Europe – the captain of the Croatian national team Samanta Fabris, who believes that they could win this Championship in Russia, will say, as always, we have a mixture of young and experienced players, a good team that can achieve great results.“
Her view of the coronavirus pandemic is also interesting.
„After I decided to leave Italy, I think that Russia was a complete success in many ways, including the treatment of the pandemic. Namely, everything is normal in Russia, the halls are full of fans, except for water polo, everything works as before, restaurants are open, almost no one wears masks and vaccination is not really talked about at all.“
And finally, the humanitarian action that Samanta started at the end of last year, while she was on New Year’s holidays in Croatia.
„When I saw the scale of the earthquake in Banovina, I immediately wondered how I could help. I connected with our national team member Ivan Raič, who plays in Greece, and some of our other players, such as Katarina Pavičić and Fran Peterlin, and we decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign to help those affected by the earthquake. At first, we thought to act immediately, but we saw that a lot of help was coming in food and clothes, so we decided on donated prefabricated houses, which seem more important to us at the moment. The action is still in progress until we collect enough and deliver it to someone who will need it the most – Samantha, the captain and a great player, but also a great humanitarian, will say in the end.“
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Great Interview.