Tears after winning the Champions League final. A great triumph of Polish volleyball!

It seemed like this would be the season. For several years, Jastrzębski Węgiel has been consistently taking more and more serious steps to finally attack the most important, most valuable trophy in the club hierarchy on the Old Continent. This is how victory in the Champions League should be treated.

The volleyball players from Jastrzębie-Zdrój also had a brilliant performance in the PlusLiga final. ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle (then sponsored by Grupa Azoty) was defeated by the most dangerous opponent. In three matches, the national champions were brutally dethroned, winning only… one set!

However, as it turned out, the magic of that ZAKSA worked once again. This time, however, in Turin, because that is where the match for the title of the best club team of the 2022/23 season in Europe took place.

Champions League: Polish final in Turin. It was a great revival of champions!

Looking at the history of the Champions League and its predecessor, the European Champion Clubs’ Cup (1960-2000), the all-time table of competitions is dominated by Russian clubs, or those formerly from the USSR. Counting since 1960, the first winner, i.e. CSKA Moscow, has had the most triumphs – thirteen.

In more recent history, Zenit Kazan is in second place among the best in the history of the Champions League. The club where in the past he played, among others, Wilfredo Leon or Bartosz Bednorz, has six titles to his credit. The all-time podium is completed by the Italian trio: Modena Volley, Sisley Treviso and Trentino Volley.

The first club had its great time in the 1990s, scoring four wins and leaving it at that. The last time the club from Treviso won was in 2006, and Trentino – this is the most recent history, from the 2023/24 season.

But there was no case in which two Polish teams would play in the final! In May 2023, in the presence of over 10,000 fans in the stands, you could watch a volleyball show at a high level – especially considering the intensity of emotions. It started 1-0 for the Jastrzębski team, then 2-1 in sets in favor of ZAKSA, a killer ending and 30:28 for Jastrzębski Węgiel and the tie-break ended 15:12 for the Kędzierzyn team. ZAKSA won the Champions League for the third time in a row.

It started with 2021 and the victory of coach Nikola Grbic’s team. Then Aleksander Śliwka was chosen MVP of the final battle, and Itas Trentino left the Polish team defeated (3:1). A year later? The set of finalists was repeated, this time ZAKSA won even more confidently (3:0), and Kamil Semeniuk was unrivaled. The team was led by coach Gheorghe Cretu. The third trainer with ZAKSA gold in the Champions League was Tuomas Sammelvuo. The Finn and his team won the last Polish victory in the Volleyball Champions League, and David Smith was chosen MVP.

In WPROST we reported on the Polish final straight from Turin.

It was a true rebirth of the champions. ZAKSA, damaged after the above-mentioned defeat in the PlusLiga final, once again climbed to its heights. The people of Jastrzębie could kick themselves for this. After losing in Turin a year later, they turned out to be worse than Trentino, also in the direct game for gold. The last attempt is the 2024/25 season. However, in the Atlas Arena in Łódź, JSW Jastrzębski lost the semi-final against Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. And although we ended up with a bronze LM disc, the lack of this gold in the Jastrzębie showcase is certainly painful. Especially since the senior team a dozen or so months later… ceased to exist.

Can we count on a repeat in Turin in 2026 and two PlusLiga teams playing for gold again? This is possible, looking at the layout of the semi-finals, but the rivals of the Polish teams are from the highest possible level. Interestingly, the foreign semi-finalists include many threads about ZAKSA and JSW Jastrzębski. The leader of the Turkish Ziraat Bankkart Ankara is Tomasz Fornal. A man who set sail in Jastrzębie-Zdrój. Fornal also remembers well the events of 2023 in Turin. However, the defending champions from 2025, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, have Kamil Semeniuk in their ranks. The host did not, however, take part in the Polish gold medal game from three years ago. But as we mentioned, a season earlier it was Semeniuk who was chosen MVP of the Champions League final, when ZAKSA won its second of three titles. And then the Pole left for Italy.

As you can see, there will be many heroes of those AD 2023 events during this year’s Final Four. The best scorer in the Polish final in Turin was Bartosz Bednorz. The receiver is currently a PGE Projekt Warszawa player, but an injury excluded him from playing and supporting the Warsaw team. Jakub Popiwczak is in the ranks of Aluron CMC. Libero, like the club from Jastrzębie-Zdrój, was trying to win the Champions League gold, but so far to no avail. The story of Yuri Gladyr, which we quoted in WPROST, is similar.

Let’s hope there will be no shortage of tears of happiness again on the part of the volleyball players of Polish clubs. This image, regardless of club affiliation, is actually a permanent element of the last club chord of the season. The entire working year is completed in one weekend. Let it be tasty and become another praise for volleyball, just like that.