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Bangkok dressed up for a night of celebration on Saturday as the Asian Volleyball Confederation opened a new chapter in the history of Asian volleyball with the inaugural AVC Gala Awards.
Held on August 8 in the Thai capital, the first AVC Gala Awards Night formed part of a landmark weekend for the Asian Volleyball Confederation, with Bangkok also hosting the 26th AVC General Assembly and a distinguished international delegation that included FIVB President Fabio Azevedo.
More than simply a new awards ceremony, the AVC Gala was conceived as a celebration of the people who defined Asian volleyball during the 2025 season. Athletes, coaches and referees from indoor and beach volleyball were recognized for their performances and contributions, while fans were given a direct role in deciding some of the evening’s most anticipated honors.
And the response from the public was extraordinary.
The inaugural Fans’ Choice voting campaign attracted almost 400,000 votes from supporters across Asia, with the final figure reaching 399,141.
It was an immediate indication of just how powerful the connection between Asian volleyball and its fans has become.
The voting structure itself was designed to combine sporting expertise with popular opinion. The Outstanding Player, Coach of the Year and Referee of the Year awards were decided through a combination of 70 percent AVC Committee votes and 30 percent public votes. The Fans’ Choice categories, meanwhile, were determined entirely by supporters, giving the volleyball community a direct voice in deciding who had made the strongest impression during the season.
Japan ultimately emerged as one of the great protagonists of the first Gala, with a particularly remarkable family story at the heart of the evening.
Mayu Ishikawa was named Outstanding Women’s Volleyball Player, while her older brother Yuki Ishikawa received the Outstanding Men’s Volleyball Player award.
The achievement gave the Ishikawa family a unique place in the history of the new event, with the two Japanese national-team captains being recognized as the outstanding players in their respective categories.
Mayu Ishikawa was unable to attend the ceremony in Bangkok, but Yuki was present and accepted the honors on behalf of both siblings, providing one of the most memorable moments of the evening.
For Yuki, the award represented another recognition of a career that has established him as one of the leading figures of Japanese and Asian volleyball. For Mayu, it was further confirmation of her status as one of the most influential players of the new generation of Japanese women’s volleyball.
The AVC had already announced both Ishikawas among the inaugural Gala honorees following the conclusion of the 2025 season.
Japan’s success extended to the coaching category as well.
Ferhat Akbaş, head coach of the Japanese women’s national team, was named Volleyball Coach of the Year, another recognition of the progress and consistency achieved by Japan under his leadership.
The award also underlined the increasingly international character of Asian volleyball. Akbaş, a Turkish coach, has become an important figure in the development of one of Asia’s most competitive women’s national teams, adding another layer to a Gala that celebrated not only national sporting identities but also the international exchange of ideas, experience and expertise that increasingly defines the modern game.
China provided another of the evening’s biggest names when Zhu Ting was recognized as Fans’ Choice Women’s Volleyball Player.
The Chinese superstar remains one of the most recognizable figures in world volleyball, and her popularity was reflected in the public vote. Zhu Ting received 42,996 votes, making her the choice of thousands of supporters who took part in the inaugural campaign.
The men’s Fans’ Choice Volleyball award went to the Philippines’ Bryan Bagunas, giving the country another reason to celebrate during an evening in which Filipino volleyball enjoyed a particularly strong presence.
The Fans’ Choice awards also highlighted the extraordinary popularity of beach volleyball across the continent.
The Philippines’ Cherry Ann Rondina and Bernadeth Pons were named Fans’ Choice Women’s Beach Volleyball Players, while Iran’s Abbas Pourasgari and Alireza Aghajani received the equivalent men’s award. The public vote once again demonstrated that the relationship between athletes and supporters extends far beyond the traditional indoor game.
Rondina and Pons collected 43,905 votes as a pair, one of the strongest totals recorded in the public voting campaign. Their recognition was particularly significant for the Philippines, a country where volleyball has developed an extraordinary and increasingly visible fan culture.
On the men’s side, Pourasgari and Aghajani’s award brought Iran into the spotlight, reflecting the country’s growing presence in Asian beach volleyball.
Qatar’s beach volleyball powerhouses Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan are honored as the Outstanding Men’s Beach Volleyball Players, while Japan’s beach volleyball stars Asami Shiba and Reika Murakami are honored as the Outstanding Women’s Beach Volleyball Players, celebrating excellence, on the sand and on the AVC Gala stage.
The evening’s competitive awards were not limited to athletes and coaches. Officials, whose work is fundamental to the credibility and quality of every competition but who rarely receive the same attention as the players, were also celebrated.
Yuliya Akulova of Kazakhstan was named Volleyball Referee of the Year, while China’s Wang Lijun received the Beach Volleyball Referee of the Year award.
Together, those honors reinforced one of the Gala’s most interesting characteristics: it was designed to celebrate the entire volleyball ecosystem rather than simply its most visible stars.
And while the inaugural edition looked firmly toward the future, it also paused to recognize the people who helped build Asian volleyball over previous decades.
Jizhong Wei of China received the Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring a career of leadership and service that extended across both Asian and international volleyball. His legacy includes serving as President of the Asian Volleyball Confederation and later as President of the FIVB, making him one of the most influential administrators in the history of the sport.
His recognition gave the evening an important sense of continuity. The Gala was celebrating the stars who defined the 2025 season, but it was also acknowledging that today’s Asian volleyball landscape was built over decades by athletes, coaches, referees, administrators and volunteers who helped establish the structures upon which the sport now continues to grow.
That connection between past, present and future was central to the AVC’s vision for the event.
AVC President Ramon Suzara underlined the importance of the fans in particular, describing their participation as an essential part of the Gala and pointing to the almost 400,000 votes as evidence of the extraordinary passion for volleyball across Asia.
The numbers certainly tell their own story.
Almost 400,000 people did not simply watch the awards from a distance. They actively participated in deciding who would receive some of the evening’s honors. In doing so, they became part of the first chapter of what the AVC hopes will develop into a lasting tradition.
That may ultimately prove to be the most important aspect of the inaugural Gala.
Asian volleyball has grown far beyond a collection of national competitions. Japan, China, Korea, Iran, Qatar, the Philippines, Kazakhstan and many other countries have developed their own volleyball identities, stars and passionate communities, while Asian players and teams have become increasingly prominent on the global stage.
The first AVC Gala gave all of those stories a common stage.
There were Olympic and world-class athletes, national-team captains, coaches, referees and beach volleyball stars. There were established legends whose influence extends beyond their playing careers and younger figures representing the future of the sport. And there were fans, whose votes transformed the event from an awards ceremony into something more democratic and genuinely continental.
The Ishikawa siblings may have provided the most symbolic image of the evening, with a brother accepting an award for himself and another on behalf of his sister. Zhu Ting and Bryan Bagunas represented the enormous popularity of the indoor game, while Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan, Asami Shiba, Reika Murakami and the other beach volleyball honorees reflected the breadth of the sport’s development across Asia.
Meanwhile, the recognition of Jizhong Wei offered a reminder that every generation of champions stands on the shoulders of those who came before.
The inaugural AVC Gala has now entered the history books.
But perhaps its real significance will only become clear in the years ahead.
If the first edition has shown anything, it is that Asian volleyball already possesses the talent, the stories and — perhaps most importantly — the audience to make this more than a one-night celebration.
The AVC Gala has opened the door.
Asia’s volleyball community has already stepped through it.
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