Toniutti: My goal is always to win

Benjamin Toniutti has been a pillar of Grupa Azoty Zaksa KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE since 2015, when he joined the Polish club. In the CEV Champions League Volley 2021 – Men, the 183-cm tall French setter and a "brain" of the team led Zaksa to historic achievement as he and his teammates reached the final of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time. Toniutti who, with no doubt, can be called a playmaking virtuoso hopes to crown this season with victory in the SuperFinals in Verona on May 1.

Grupa Azoty Zaksa KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE were not among top favourites of this edition of the CEV Champions League Volley – Men, however many mentioned them as the one that might be a black horse of the competition. Defeating Lube and Zenit on their way to the final they proved to be one of the strongest teams in Europe. "Before the start of the Champions League there were three teams considered as favourites to win the Champions League - Perugia, Lube and Kazan. We had to play against two of them to progress to the final… We knew that we were not favourites, but we just played our game, we kept our level, we fought and were in the game no matter if we were up or down. If you keep playing like a team and fighting as a team until the end, there is always a possibility to come back to the game. We also had players that made a difference and some moments that were crucial. We just continued to play no matter if we were behind or in the lead, we just fought until the end and I think it was a key to qualify to the Super Finals" – said Benjamin Toniutti, who serves as the captain of Grupa Azoty Zaksa KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE.

Benjamin Toniutti emphasized that there were few factors that made them so strong this season: "We started preparation for this season very early, there was no national team season, so the entire team arrived in Kędzierzyn already in mid-July. We had a lot of time to prepare physically and technically. In addition, we kept almost the same rooster like last year, so therefore it was much easier to play. We started the season with winning the Polish SuperCup, so already this gave us a lot of self-confidence. We did a good job and now we have a chance to earn the Champions League’s trophy, so we will do our best to win."

Benjamin Toniutti who himself is a member of the Zaksa’s squad since 2015 had an opportunity to experience the transformation of the team that in the past seasons was dominant on the Polish stage. "We can say that Paweł Zatorski and I are the base of the team. There were some players in the club who already left, and many arrived three years ago like Aleksander Śliwka and Łukasz Kaczmarek, it's the second season for David Smith, so we kept some base-players and every year some new players come, too. Thus, we keep high-level performance, it's good that we keep it for so long and we hope to win more trophies..."

To go down in history as a winner of the CEV Champion League Volley 2021 – Men they need to defeat one more prominent team – Trentino Itas. "If someone watched this edition of the Champions League from the beginning, he could say that we and Trentino are the teams who played the best as a team, as unity. They have some important players, i.e. Nimir Abdel Aziz, who has a really good season and who is their key player. They proved that they play at a very high level. We have to continue to play the same way as we did in play-offs, to play smart and not make too many mistakes. I think it will be a nice final, but also a bit weird as both teams will have some longer period without games. We finished the national league on Sunday [as PlusLiga runners-up], and they have even a longer break, so it will be a little bit crazy and it will be hard to present the same rhythm like during playoffs."