The Pole was the best volleyball player in the world. Now he has received an important award

Jastrzębski Węgiel’s volleyball players have won all their Champions League victories. The finalists of the last two editions of the competition this time defeated Chaumont VB 52, winning on their home turf in four sets.

Łukasz Kaczmarek with the MVP award. Jastrzębski Węgiel is still undefeated

However, it must be openly admitted that the French team showed a really good performance, putting a lot of pressure on the PlusLiga favorites. After a relatively certain 25-20 victory in the premiere, the Jastrzębie team had to chase their rivals in the next matches.

– I am incredibly proud of this team, this team. That we survived the match like that and won by three points. Because really, the way the Chaumont team played today, hats off to them. They played incredibly well, especially in terms of defense. It was very difficult for us to get to the dance floor. And they played great (…) Anyone in Europe would have problems with a team from Chaumont playing like that. We knew that this was one of the last chances for our rivals to advance to the next part of the competition. It is known that when such a team comes to such a successful club as Jastrzębie, they have nothing to lose. I think that the way we were able to oppose them and pull out the final pieces, and that we won for the full amount, is a great job – complimented the work of the team’s MVP of the match, Łukasz Kaczmarek.

The attacker, who moved from ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle to its biggest rival before the 2024/25 season, needed such a performance, looking back on recent years and the fight for the most important laurels in the country and Europe. “Zwierzak” is certainly far from how he looked in 2023. It is worth recalling that at that time the Pole was voted the best volleyball player in the world by Volleybox.net.

How was it calculated? The special ranking took into account both tournaments and team results, but also individual awards. Kaczmarek then won the Olympic qualification, the above-mentioned Nations League, the European Championship and stood on the podium of the friendly Hubert Wagner Memorial. In addition, he won the Champions League, the Polish Cup and took second place in the PlusLiga.

Additionally, “Zwierzak” was individually voted the best attacker during the European Championships and the Nations League. The Pole also added the distinction of being the best blocker of the European Championship. Little? The then ZAKSA attacker also won the award for the best scorer in the most prestigious club competition – the Champions League.

– Have I been waiting for a performance like this? The most important thing is that we win by three points. And when it comes to my individual statistics or individual performance, there are experts and people to evaluate it. I’m here to play and help the team. And for this team to win. We have twelve points after four rounds of the Champions League and we should be really happy about it, said Kaczmarek, without directly referring to the individual performance against the French.

Do the Polish champions have the potential to achieve the final triumph in the competition? Kaczmarek is optimistic in this matter.

– From my experience of playing in the Champions League, as I have already played there for a few years, I can say that a good draw is certainly a privilege, but I also remember when we won the first cup with ZAKSA. We had Lube in the quarterfinals, Zenit Kazan in the semifinals, and Trentino in the final. We have such a team that we don’t look at our rivals, but at ourselves. I am convinced that we are able to fight with anyone and win (…) we have the papers and the team to fight for gold in the Champions League – concluded “Zwierzak”.

It is worth adding that after four rounds of the most prestigious club competition in Europe, three representatives of PlusLiga have a complete set of victories. PGE Projekt Warszawa is the leader of group A, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie of group B, and the Polish champions from Jastrzębie-Zdrój are in group E. This perfectly illustrates the great power of Polish volleyball.