VakifBank rise again to claim historic seventh European crown
News
Some victories are about trophies. Others are about timing.
On a charged Sunday night in Istanbul, under the lights of a sold-out Ülker Sports and Event Hall and before 13,500 spectators, VakifBank ISTANBUL did more than defeat city rivals Eczacibasi Dynavit ISTANBUL. They wrote themselves into European volleyball history.
With a 3-1 victory in the CEV ZEREN Group Champions League Volley 2026 Women’s Final, VakifBank claimed their seventh continental crown, more than any club in Champions League history, across both women’s and men’s competitions.
And at the heart of it all stood a player who had waited years for this exact moment.
“Finally,” said MVP Tijana Bošković, when asked what her first Champions League gold medal meant after more than a decade at the top level. “I feel relieved after so many years… I was patient, and finally I did what I wanted a long time ago.”
There was no better word for it.
For Bošković, the Serbian superstar who had lifted world titles, club world championships, and domestic honours, Europe’s biggest club prize had remained unfinished business. On this night, against the club she once captained and carried, she delivered 33 points and a performance worthy of the occasion.
She was unstoppable in attack, clinical in key moments, and utterly decisive whenever VakifBank needed her most.
Beside her, Marina Markova continued the breakout Champions League campaign that had defined her season, adding 26 points in another fearless display. Together, they formed the most lethal attacking duo in the final, and perhaps the competition.
But this triumph was built on far more than individual brilliance.
It was forged in the drama of the entire weekend.
Less than 24 hours earlier, VakifBank had staged one of the most remarkable semi-final comebacks in recent Champions League memory, overturning a 0-2 deficit against A. Carraro Prosecco DOC CONEGLIANO and saving four match points. It was their third comeback from two sets down in this season’s competition, a feat no other club had ever achieved in a single Champions League campaign.
By the end of Sunday night, they had turned resilience into silverware.
“I feel extremely happy because this group worked so hard all season and we improved a lot,” said head coach Giovanni Guidetti, who extended his own record with a seventh Champions League title. “There are so many stories inside this team, special and magical ones. They are winners. There is nothing else to say.”
Guidetti’s words captured what statistics alone could not.
This was a team shaped by pressure and sharpened by adversity. Their last four Champions League matches had all gone to five sets before the final. Their campaign had demanded survival as much as dominance. Yet they arrived unbeaten and left as champions.
Against Eczacibasi, they controlled the first two sets with discipline and composure, absorbing the power of Ebrar Karakurt and Sinead Jack-Kisal while leaning on their own defensive structure. Eczacibasi pushed back in the third, but VakifBank responded with authority in the fourth, closing the match with the same conviction that had carried them through the weekend.
For Eczacibasi, it was another painful final chapter in a campaign that had promised so much. Karakurt led with 20 points, while Jack-Kisal contributed 14, but their efforts could not overturn VakifBank’s momentum.
And so, in Istanbul, the trophy stayed home.
But it also became something larger, a statement of legacy.
VakifBank were already one of the defining clubs of the modern era. Now they stand alone at the summit of European volleyball.
Seven titles. A new all-time record. A campaign completed unbeaten.
And for Bošković, after all these years, the one medal that had eluded her was finally hers.
Sometimes history belongs to those who never stop waiting for their moment.
On this night, it belonged to VakifBank.