On this day…
volleyball birthdays, amarcord, Italian pre-season, Marko Ivovic and Yuval Chansky, 2026 Asian Games and Mubarak Musa Thiik Madut
Welcome to the 97th episode of VolleyBar!
One of the greatest Polish volleyball players of all time, Małgorzata Glinka-Mogentale, was born in Warsaw on September 30, 1978.
Known simply as “Maggie”, she was the leader of the Polish generation that won back-to-back European Championship titles in 2003 and 2005, helping Poland establish itself as a major force in women’s volleyball. She also represented Poland at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Her club career took her through some of Europe’s biggest teams, including RC Cannes, where she won the Champions League, and VakıfBank, giving us a very nice Poland–France–Türkiye connection in a single birthday.
Another Polish volleyball birthday, this time from an earlier generation: Jerzy Szymczyk was born on September 30, 1942. He earned 123 caps for Poland between 1961 and 1970 and represented the national team at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where Poland finished fifth. He also played at World and European Championships and later became a coach, including work with Polish youth teams.
He died in 2016, aged 74.
On September 30, 2015, Italy defeated Croatia 3–0 in the Women’s EuroVolley playoffs in Rotterdam:
25:23, 25:17, 25:22.
The victory sent Italy into the quarterfinals, where they would face Russia.
On the same day, Poland defeated Belarus 3–0 to also reach the quarterfinals.
It was the first step into the knockout phase for a Polish side that was attempting to return to the podium after their historic European title in 2003 and 2005.
The result is particularly relevant today because Poland have since become one of the deepest powers in European women’s volleyball, while the men’s national team have just won EuroVolley 2026!
September 30 also has a curious connection with the 2020 European Championship — a tournament heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2020 men’s EuroVolley schedule included Italy–France on September 30 as part of the revised tournament calendar. CEV had to modify the schedule after coronavirus cases affected the competition, including cases involving Turkish and Ukrainian players.
The tournament ultimately continued under exceptional circumstances, making this date a small reminder of how dramatically the volleyball calendar was affected that year.
September 30, 2023 marked the opening day of the men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments for Paris 2024.
Three tournaments began simultaneously in:
🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro
🇯🇵 Tokyo
🇨🇳 Xi’an
The 24 teams were divided into three pools of eight, with the top two teams from each pool earning Olympic qualification.
The six teams that eventually qualified through those tournaments were:
🇩🇪 Germany
🇧🇷 Brazil
🇺🇸 United States
🇯🇵 Japan
🇵🇱 Poland
🇨🇦 Canada
France were already qualified as hosts.
This is particularly interesting today because the 2023 qualification system is the predecessor to the current Road to LA28, although the 2028 qualification pathway is structured differently.
Poland opened their 2023 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Xi’an, China, where they would ultimately finish unbeaten and qualify comfortably for Paris.
They won all seven matches, dropping eight sets across the tournament but never losing their grip on first place.
That qualification was the beginning of another Olympic campaign for a Polish generation that has now also secured LA28 qualification by winning EuroVolley 2026.
The other two pools also opened on September 30.
In Rio, Brazil began their home qualification tournament alongside Italy, Cuba, Germany, Iran, Ukraine, Czechia and Qatar.
In Tokyo, the USA began their campaign against Slovenia, Japan, Serbia, Türkiye, Tunisia, Egypt and Finland.
There is a nice historical coincidence here: Finland, now the 2026 European bronze medallists, were already involved in the Olympic qualification race three years ago!
On September 30, 2021, the draw for the 2022 Men’s World Championship was scheduled to take place in Moscow.
The ceremony was supposed to determine the composition of the 24-team tournament and the cities in which the teams would play. At that stage, only the hosts and defending champions Poland had automatically secured places.
Of course, the tournament would later be moved away from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, with Poland and Slovenia eventually hosting the championship.
That makes September 30, 2021 an interesting “before everything changed” date in the history of the 2022 World Championship.
The 2018 Men’s World Championship was also entering its decisive stages around this date.
Poland were defending their 2014 title and would eventually retain the crown, defeating Brazil in the final on September 30.
That means September 30, 2018 is one of the biggest dates in Polish volleyball history.
Poland defeated Brazil 3–0 in the final in Turin:
28:26, 25:20, 25:23
to become World Champions for the second consecutive time!
Poland had already stunned the volleyball world four years earlier by winning the World Championship on home soil. In 2018 they went one step further by defending their title.
Against Brazil in Turin, Poland won all three sets, with the opening set going all the way to 28–26.
Bartosz Kurek was named tournament MVP.
Poland became only the second team after Brazil to successfully defend the men’s World Championship title in the 21st century.
And there is a superb present-day connection:
2018 — Poland world champions
2022 — Poland runners-up
2023 — Poland European champions
2025 — Poland World Championship bronze
2026 — Poland European champions again
The September 30, 2018 final also closed one of the great modern World Championship rivalries.
Brazil had won the World Championship in 2002, 2006 and 2010, while Poland took the title in 2014 and 2018.
The 2018 final therefore represented a direct clash between the two dominant men’s national teams of that era.
Poland’s victory prevented Brazil from completing a fourth consecutive World Championship title.
September 30 also appears repeatedly in the historical FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar, particularly because the late-September period traditionally hosted major tournaments in Europe, Asia and South America.
But now we back to the present: after the end of EuroVolley, the Italian men’s clubs are beginning their pre-season friendly programme.
Allianz Milano are scheduled to face Valsa Group Modena today, September 30, at the PalaPanini, before meeting Monza on October 3.
There is also an actual current FIVB event taking place today.
The FIVB and International Testing Agency begin their 2026 anti-doping webinar series on September 30 with Introduction to Anti-Doping.
The first session runs from 14:00 to 15:00 CEST, with further sessions scheduled for October 7 and 14. The programme is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese.
Serbian outside hitter Marko Ivović left Turkish side Spor Toto to join Slovenia’s powerhouse ACH Volley Lujbljana, while young Israeli setter Yuval Chansky, last season in France with the jersey of Cannes, is officially a new player of Hapoel Mate-Asher Akko, in his homeland.
The preliminary phase of 20th Asian Games has officially concluded, and the knockout stage brackets are locked in!
Quarterfinal Matchups (1-8)
🇯🇵 Japan vs. 🇶🇦 Qatar
🇹🇭 Thailand vs. 🇨🇳 China
🇮🇳 India vs. 🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇰🇷 South Korea vs. 🇮🇷 Iran
Classification Round (9-16)
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan vs. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan vs. 🇹🇼 Chinese Taipei
🇻🇳 Vietnam vs. 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
🇵🇭 Philippines vs. 🇮🇩 Indonesia
Games are scheduled tomorrow.
13-Year-Old Mubarak Musa Thiik Shines at the Asian Games!
Born in South Sudan, naturalized Qatari rising star Mubarak Musa Thiik Madut delivered an incredible 40-point performance against India, despite a hard-fought five-set loss.
Standing at an imposing 210 cm, the young player is taking the Asian Games by storm. He is currently the tournament’s highest scorer, tallying a massive 81 points across just three matches:
68 Attacks
54.4% Attack Efficiency
9 Blocks
4 Aces
___________________
👀|QUICK LINKS
• VolleyBAR 📝🏐
• Multimedia
• Facebook
• Instagram
___________________