Pineapple on pizza, favourite teammates and visualisations: Final Four roundtable unveils the persons behind the stars

The media day for the Final Four of this season’s CEV Champions League Women threw off with a special round table, where one player of each of the four finalists – A.Carraro Imoco Conegliano, Numia Vero Volley Milano, VakifBank Istanbul and Savino Del Bene Scandicci – took part.

Moderated by volleyball commentator Lewie Lett, who you will hear narrating the fantastic matches during the Final Four in Istanbul, this round table provided a great insight into the four players – Gabi Guimaraes, Nika Daalderop, Kiera Van Ryk and Ana Carolina Da Silva – with questions about themselves both on and off the court.

But how were the players feeling one day prior to throw off?

“I'm the kind of person that I like to think day by day. So to be honest, just to arrive here and see all the organisation, everyone, all the players,  you know, my best friend is here. So then I start to feel, you know, this bump in your belly, you know, to feel like, yes, I wanna be in the court. I wanna fight with my team, I wanna do everything I can for this expeirence to turn out really nice, really special,” said da Silva, who will be in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in her career.

Can a player who has seen everything really feel butterflies in her stomach prior to a big weekend like this, where a season will be decided in just two matches, a matter of a few sets?

“I think it's completely normal. Like, before you go to sleep at night, before thinking about the game, visualise the situation. That's why also meditating is important for me, so I can keep my feelings down. I think the only moment when the thing disappears, when you go on the court, then you know what you have to do and then it's just thinking about the game. It is normal to have butterflies,” adds Gabi Guimaraes, a two-time Champions League winner with VakifBank, who now plays for Conegliano.

Then, the discussion moved into a more relaxed, informal way, with a game of “this or that”, where players were asked where they enjoy to play most, in Türkiye or Italy.

And Guimaraes, who spent five years in VakifBank Istanbul, finally chose Türkiye after some deliberation. 

“The food is really, really good. You have amazing places to go to visit. The kebab is really, really good, also the soup, amazing. The first thing I did was to eat a soup,” said Guimaraes.

“For me it is different, I played six years in Italy and one year in Istanbul, therefore I will say Italy,” said Daalderop.

Lett then asked the players if they would add pineapple to a pizza, as all players laughed and objected, saying that this is not advisable.

In the end, the players were also put to the test, to see who are the top teammates they ever played with.

Gabi’s answer – Ana Carolina da Silva – led to laughs, especially when da Silva immediately said Gabi, with the two Brazilians high fiving each other, while Daalderop mentioned Laura Dijkma.