VolleyBar83#: Wednesday September 9, 2026

On this day..
Eurovolley 2026, Amarcord and volleyball birthdays, Italy and AVC Men’s Volleyball Continental Championship

Welcome to 83th episode of VolleyBar!
Yes, today is the day!
EuroVolley 2026 gets underway today with the opening matches in Pools B and D!
In Pool B, hosts Bulgaria will face North Macedonia in Sofia, while in Cluj-Napoca, Romania will take on Latvia.
On the eve of European major event, Massimo Botti’s Germany will make their tournament debut against Türkiye on Thursday in Cluj-Napoca. The Italian coach, preparing for his first European Championship at the helm of the German national team, is relying on the progress made during the past four months as his side prepares to face a pool that also includes Latvia, Romania, Switzerland and France.
Türkiye are dreaming of winning the first European medal in the history of their men’s national team. Tinet Prata outside hitter Efe Bayram has set the objective of getting through the pool and progressing step by step. During the same competition, Prata will also be following Belgian middle blocker Wout D’Heer.
The final squads for Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, Portugal and Poland have also been confirmed. Gianlorenzo Blengini has selected seven outside hitters, just one opposite and young setter Simeon Nikolov for Bulgaria. Ukraine, coached by Raúl Lozano, welcome back outside hitter Tymofii Poluian following hand surgery and libero Oleksandr Boyko after a knee injury, while Illia Kovalov is unavailable due to health issues, you can read all news directly here, while calendar with all games, results and gallery updated every day is here.

But now a little bit volleyball memories!

On September 9, 2017, Jan Pokersnik and Nejc Zemljak won the FIVB World Tour event in Montpellier, claiming the only World Tour title of their partnership.
It was an important moment for Slovenian beach volleyball, coming during a period in which the country was establishing itself as a much more visible presence on the international scene.
The victory is particularly interesting for our series because Pokersnik and Zemljak later became part of the generation that helped put Slovenian beach volleyball on the map internationally.

On this day in 2007, Brazilian legends Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos won the Stare Jablonki Open in Poland.
It was the 29th of their remarkable 33 FIVB World Tour victories together.
The number tells the story: Emanuel and Ricardo were one of the defining partnerships of the first great era of modern beach volleyball. Together they won Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 and became one of the most successful teams ever on the World Tour.

Another important Italian entry comes from the same day: in Modena, Italy, on September 9, 2007, Francesco Giontella and Paolo Nicolai won the FIVB Under-21 World Championship. It was the first of two FIVB victories for the partnership.
For Nicolai, this was the beginning of a remarkable international career. He would later become one of Italy’s greatest beach-volleyball players, winning Olympic silver in Rio 2016 and bronze in Tokyo 2020.
So there is a beautiful connection between the date and the career that followed: September 9, 2007 was the day a future Olympic medallist became a world champion at youth level.

A more recent Italian memory comes from EuroVolley 2023.
On September 9, Italy defeated North Macedonia 3–0 (25:20, 25:12, 25:15) in Bari, comfortably advancing through the round of 16. On the same night, the Netherlands defeated Germany 3–2 in another five-set thriller.
Italy would eventually reach the final in Rome, where they lost to Poland.
For an Italian volleyball audience, this is probably worth mentioning because Bari was one of the central venues of that EuroVolley, with the tournament eventually moving to Rome for the decisive stages.

And there is another very good match from EuroVolley 2023: in Varna, Bulgaria, Slovenia defeated Türkiye 3–2 (20:25, 22:25, 25:21, 25:23, 15:13) on September 9 to reach the quarterfinals.
Türkiye led 2–0 and appeared on course for the quarterfinals, but Slovenia produced a huge comeback, winning three consecutive sets.

September 9, 2019 was the final day of the FIVB World Tour Finals in Rome, at the Foro Italico.
The event crowned Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch in the women’s tournament and Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy in the men’s competition.
For the Russian men’s pair, it was especially significant: they had already won the 2019 World Championship in Hamburg, defeating Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler, and then followed it up with the World Tour Finals title in Rome.
So, within a few weeks, Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy had established themselves as the dominant men’s beach-volleyball team of the summer of 2019.

Liane Sato was born on September 9, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. She represented the United States at two Olympic Games, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, winning bronze in Barcelona. She was also part of the American team that won bronze at the 1990 World Championship in China.
Interestingly, volleyball runs in the family: her brother Eric Sato also played for the United States at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Former Soviet player Viktor Borshch was born on September 9, 1948.
He was part of the Soviet team that won Olympic bronze at Munich 1972 and also collected silver at the 1974 World Championship. At club level, he won nine Soviet league titles and four European Cups.

Turkish middle blocker Yasin Sancak was born on September 9, 1978.
A long-time member of the Turkish national team, he played for several major Turkish clubs, including Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, Arkas and Ziraat Bankası. He was also part of the Turkish team that won the 2005 Universiade.

Filipina outside hitter/libero Grethcel Soltones was born on September 9, 1995.
She became one of the notable players of the Philippine domestic scene, winning multiple individual honours during her collegiate career at San Sebastian College-Recoletos and later becoming a regular figure in the Premier Volleyball League.

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In Italy, Rana Verona have introduced their new setter, Kellian Motta Paes. The Frenchman, born in 2002, is set for his first experience in the Italian SuperLega after previous spells in France and Poland, where he will work alongside american legend Micah Christenson.
Federico Crosato has also returned to Perugia after winning bronze at the Mediterranean Games. The Sir Susa Scai middle blocker is currently following an individual training programme due to a minor knee issue and is preparing for his second consecutive season in the powerhouse’s jersey, in a middle-blocking department that will also welcome Giovanni Sanguinetti.

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Thailand remains undefeated at the AVC Men’s Volleyball Continental Championship! They secured the top spot in Pool C with a 3–0 preliminary record after edging out Chinese Taipei in an absolute five-set thriller: 25:23, 22:25, 23:25, 25:22, 15:10.
Bahrain concluded their campaign on a high note, defeating Oman in straight sets: 25:16, 25:19, 25:23.
Despite the victory, Bahrain narrowly missed out on the knockout stages and finished in 9th place. The result officially confirms India as the 8th seed in the quarterfinals, while Oman finishes the tournament in 10th position, while Iran down China in four sets to close Pool Phase.

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