Russian volleyball players led the French club to the championship. But I had to pay a fine
Sofia Kolodkina May 15, 2023, 22:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The six from Russia helped secure Volero’s second straight championship.
The French club repeated last year’s success: the team, with almost six Russians at the start, won the league championship. In the final series of two matches, they defeated Mulhouse – 3-1 (15-25; 26-24; 26-24; 25-16).
The club is run by a Russian businessman.
Six Russian volleyball players – Anna Kotikova, Tatyana Simanikhina, Vita Akimova, Alina Popova, Elizaveta Kochurina and Victoria Kobzar – became French champions. They were brought to the club by a Russian businessman and former Soviet volleyball player Stanislav Yakubovsky, or Stav Yakobi. He managed the Swiss team in the 2000s: he took 13 national titles with them. But he saw no further development prospects and in 2018 he moved the club to Cannes.
Becoming took a chance and decided to combine the Swiss “Volero” and the French “Cannet-Rocheville”. Reasons for the merger: desire to grow in a more competitive environment. To do this, in the last offseason, Volero sharply rejuvenated the composition – got rid of the average age of 28-23 years and parted with a dozen volleyball players, but also gained bright prospects. The Russians are the main transfer success. Agent Yekaterina Fedorovtseva, the mother of Fenerbahce team player Arina Fedorovtseva, helped organize the up-and-coming talented. And for the transfer of each VFV -as the amount of the transfer certificate- he received €3.9 thousand according to the European calculator.
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Along with the Russians, Bulgarian winger Eva Yaneva, Chinese libero Simin Wang and Brazilian blocker Milka Marsilia also entered the final matches. Although French league rules allow only five foreign players to flirt in a match at the same time, at least one player with French citizenship must always be present on the pitch.
However, blocker Chloe Meyer did not play in the final four games of the season. For violation of the rules, Volero will pay €5,000 for each match. But it seems that the championship and a ticket to the Champions League next season will make up for the financial losses.
Akimova is the league’s top scorer
Russians are generally very excited about the world of volleyball. The main giant of the Russian national team, Dmitry Musersky, recently won silver at the Japanese championship, and Arina Fedorovtseva and Anna Lazareva shared gold in Turkey. Now it is France.
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But Volero was having a hard time during the season: the team finished the regular season in fifth place, so even reaching the Champions League playoffs did not save head coach Milan Grsic from being fired. Volero changed coaches in January: Mladen Kasic took over. Under him, the club in the “golden” ensemble lost to the Polish “Rzeszow” a ticket to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Therefore, the playoffs and the national title remained the only hope for a successful season. Although the team “burned” even during the most important matches, it turned the series around twice with Nantes in 1/4 and Venel in the semifinals, losing the first matches to them.
And only the final battles were given to them relatively easily. Both finished 3-1. Prime Akimov in decisive matches brought 37 and 29 points. Vita generally won the scoring race by a decent margin: 726 points in 34 games.
Among the main characters of the “golden” series was Elizaveta Kochurina. She became the No. 2 forward in the playoffs with 115 points in eight games, 30 of which were blocks. Kotikova in matches with Mulhouse unequivocally performed at the reception – 60% positive refinement.
Yes, while the girls lack the experience of the big European tournaments, talent and drive will make up for any imperfections in attack and defence, especially since the backbone of the Russians at the club will remain for at least one more season.
