Stars Shining Bright In This Year’s CEV Champions League Volley

A new season of CEV Champions League Volley fast approaches, and with it a new sense of excitement as twenty teams vie for European glory once again.

As ever with this prestigious competition, there will be many big names to keep an eye on, and we are going to pull out a few of the biggest to whet your appetite.

This season, there is a plethora of Outside Hitters and Middle Blockers looking to take the competition by storm and lead their teams to glory, so it only seems fair that we begin with those positions.

Middle Blockers

Starting things off we have some of the biggest men in the sport, literally. Norbert Huber was an integral part of the Poland side which claimed a silver medal at this year’s Olympic Games. Standing at 2.07m he is an imposing figure, and last season he contested his third straight Champions League final, narrowly missing out on a hat-trick of titles as Jastrzębski Węgiel fell in the final.

Huber is not the only Polish middle blocker looking to make their mark on the competition. Jakub Kochanowski will be looking to add to the Champions League title he won alongside Huber in 2021, this year lining up for Projekt Warszawa after three seasons at Asseco Resovia.

Taylor Averill is another familiar face in a new location. The American Olympic bronze medallist from this summer has departed Projekt Warszawa to move back to Italy representing Vero Volley Monza.

Averill is not the only big name brought in to the SuperLiga. Sir Sicome Monini Perugia will line up this season with two Argentine icons in the middle after their acquisition of Agustin Loser, who joins Sebastian Sole in Perugia. The duo helped Argentina to Olympic bronze in Tokyo, and will be looking for a first European title together.

Outside Hitters

Some of the most exciting players in the sport line up as outside hitters and opposites, and the Champions League boasts some of volleyball’s great entertainers this season.

One of the big moves over the off-season was Japanese outside hitter Yuki Ishikawa moving from Allianz Milano to Sir Sicome Monini Perugia. Sir replaced him with another Japanese player in the form of Oysuka Tatsunori and fans from across the world will be keen to see how these two get on in their new surroundings.

There are also a pair of double Olympic champion outside hitters lining up in the competition this year. French teammates Kevin Tillie and Yacine Louati will suit up for Projekt Warszawa and Allianz Milano respectively as both try to claim a first Champions League title.

We also have two Polish outside hitters to watch this season. Jastrzębski Węgiel’s Tomasz Fornal and Sir Sicome Monini Perugia’s Kamil Semeniuk both helped Poland to Olympic silver this summer, and both have pedigree in this competition. Fornal has played in each of the last two finals, finishing with silver on both occasions, while Semeniuk has two winner’s medals from 2021 and 2022 when he played for ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle.

Setter

In Benjamin Toniutti, Simone Giannelli and Micah Ma’a, the Champions League will feature some of the best in the sport this season.

Toniutti, another double Olympic gold medallist with France, has competed in three of the last four Champions League finals, claiming gold in 2021. He is back with Jastrzębski Węgiel for another season and will be looking to help them to a first European title.

Giannelli also has two silver medals to his name in this competition, and has been at the top of the sport for some time. Despite being just 28 years of age, he was part of the Italy team that took Olympic silver at Rio 2016, the same season as his first Champions League final.

Micah Ma’a helped United States to Olympic bronze earlier in the summer, and starts his third season at Halkbank Ankara. No stranger to winning titles, he will be looking to help Ankara to a first Champions League final in over a decade.

Libero

Jakub Popiwczak has been a core component of Jastrzębski Węgiel’s title challenges in the last two seasons, and will be an integral part of their team once again heading into this new season.

With plenty of star power spread across the Champions League teams, we cannot wait to see who shines brightest this season.