The European Business Club Poland takes a holistic approach to business issues. It notices the importance of entrepreneurship in culture, science, sport, media and the whole surrounding. Such a complexity means a synergy of business activity with other areas, as a result of which there is a comprehensive development of society, humanitarianism and life quality improvement, and this is what entrepreneurship is for. In its activity, the association follows the rules and the system of values and ideals. These are: culture, ethos, morality, ethics and social solidarity. The awards of the European Business Club Poland are focused on the above values, being their personification.
The main award Victoria Europae • European Victoria is the award for significant achievements that upgrade the prestige of Poland on the international scene. The candidate for the award Victoria Europea 2018 European Victoria is the Poland men’s national volleyball team, which acts according to that system of values and treats them as primary and timeless, and it also has a holistic approach in its activities.
The Poland national team for the first time in history has defended the world’s championship title in men’s volleyball, winning the third time in the history of Polish men’s volleyball the gold medal in World Championship. This is not only unprecedented situation, considering that the team is not the same as it was 4 years ago, but mainly because it won the medal in the year of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence restoration.
On 30th September 2018 in Torino the Poland national team beat the Brasilian team 3:0 (28:26, 25:20, 25:23) in the final XIX FIVB World Championship in Men’s Volleyball 2018. The white-red team played a superb game and defended the world champions title. Four years ago the Poland team also played against Canarinhos in the final volleyball game. At the Spodek centre in Katowice they won 3:1. It wasn’t just a formality to defend the title, and only the most loyal supporters believed the Polish players had a chance to win the medal.
One of the supporters who hoped the Polish team would win was Ryszard Bosek, the world champion and the Olympics winner in 1974 and 1976 – I really believe we can win the medal in the world championship – he said, but did he mean the gold medal?
Even the trainer of the white-red team Vital Heynen didn’t say much about chances for the medal. Being within the first six teams was supposed to be a sufficient success. – I had to be realistic. Anyway, I still think that France, the USA, Russia and Brazil are the teams full of individual talents, which are better than we are. – the Belgian coach said after the finals. Indeed, he had to be realistic – when taking over the Poland national team in the beginning of the year, he had a long-term goal ahead – medal at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020. For that reason, the team needed to be created from the basics.
The current national team of Poland is not the same team which four years later won the gold in the probably best world men’s volleyball championship in history – Poland 2014.
After that tournament, a few key players finished their careers in the national representation, and the team in spite of several successes was still looking for its championship shape.
Merely five players stayed in the team after it won twelve out of thirteen games in 2014. Only Paweł Zatorski and Piotr Nowakowski had a confirmed position in the team of six. Dawid Konarski replaced Wlazły, Michał Kubiak, the team captain and leader today, was on the sidelines at that time. The same was with Fabian Drzyzga, who played very well with Zagumny on the position of setter. The young guards entered the Poland national team – Szalpuk is 23 years old, the same as Aleksander Śliwka who gave an excellent change in the game with the USA. The junior world champions are even younger, Jakub Kochanowski and Bartosz Kwolek are 21 years old. The first one has already become the main player in the team next to Mateusz Bieniek and Piotr Nowakowski, who in Torino won the eighth medal of the great tournament and has the biggest number of medals in the current Poland men’s volleyball team.
The team trainer also changed even twice, Stephen Antiga was replaced in 2017 by Ferdinando De Giorgi, and one year later the era of crazy, unpredictable and one and only coach Vital Heynen started. From the beginning of his work with the white-red team Vital Heynen started his “magic” – unconventional approach, untypical trainings, a very high rotation of players, no “solid team” of six .. and not only. In the season finals the fans could see the team of experienced volleyball players, including the current world champions and ambitious young players. There were two members of the gold team of “dominants” – the world champions and Europe champions in the category of cadets and juniors – namely Jakub Kochanowski and Bartosz Kwolk. Next to them, Poland was represented in Bulgaria and Italy by a bit older Artur Szalpuk and Aleksander Śliwka. Vital Henyen also chose Bartosz Kurka – the player who with his talent a few years ago made great hopes, and then opinions about him among the fans were sharply divided. During the world tournament in 2014 he wasn’t in the team. This year he “shot” fantastically with great shape during the championships and he surprised everyone doubting with his performance.
The Poland national team players in the Volleyball Men’s World Championship Italy/Bulgaria 2018:
Team players
1 Piotr Nowakowski
3 Dawid Konarski
6 Bartosz Kurek
7 Artur Szalpuk
8 Damian Schulz
10 Damian Wojtaszek
11 Fabian Drzyzga
12 Grzegorz Łomacz
13 Michał Kubiak – captain of Poland team
14 Aleksander Śliwka
15 Jakub Kochanowski
17 Paweł Zatorski
18 Bartosz Kwolek
20 Mateusz Bieniek
Staff
Vital Heynen – coach of Poland team
Michał Mieszko Gogol – assistant coach
Sebastian Pawlik – assistant coach
Robert Kaźmierczak – statistics
Tomasz Pieczko – physiotherapist
Fons Vranken – physical training coach
Jan Sokal – doctor
Mariusz Szyszko – team manager / spokesman
Hubert Tomaszewski – team manager
The road of the Polish volleyball players to the gold medal at the world tournament this year in Torino was quite hard, similarly to the road to the Polish independence. They began with winning the first round in Warna – after five meetings they won all points. When many people started talking about their chances to enter the medal zone, there was a cold shower because of two failures in the second round of tournament. The first failure with Argentina 2:3 was particularly surprising. In tie-break the players of Vital Heynan scored 14:11. Next, the defenders of the title lost with France 1:3 and their situation got complicated. In the “game for life” they beat the Serbia team, which was sure about making it to the next stage, without losing even one set. After moving to Torino for the final stage, the white-read team didn’t slow down anymore. In the second in a row game with the team from the Balkans, they won again 3:0. Then, they lost with Italy 2:3, but after winning the first part of this game the Polish players were already certain about making it to the semi-finals from the first place in the group. The most difficult game of the tournament for the Polish team was the semi-final against the USA players, which ended in a tie-break. Although the meeting finished almost at midnight, one day later they came back elevated by the guaranteed medal, the team players beat the Brazilians in an impressing and blistering style, not giving them even one set. The team of Vital Heynan didn’t allow the opponents to take control over the game and it triumphed 3:0, winning the third in history the Polish gold in the men’s volleyball world tournament.
The best player at this year world championship was Bartosz Kurek. The opposite spiker of the Poland national team was awarded the title of the most valuable player (MVP) in the volleyball world tournament 2018. He didn’t take part in the tournament 4 years before, and his metamorphosis was significant to the results of the team, because without his great performance there wouldn’t be any gold medal, or even advance to the semi-finals. Crossed out by many experts and fans, the 30-yeard-old volleyball player was reborn like Phoenix from ashes and after a few years of worse performance he proved that he still can play the highest level. – I am happy about such appreciation, but I know very well that every player in our team could be MVP, because everyone contributed with the same hard work, the same energy and everyone sacrificed a lot so that we could achieve success – he said in an interview. These words resemble the Vitala Heynan words, who said once “ I always build teams, I don’t make individuals”.
Next to Kurek, three other Polish national volleyball team players won individual awards: the Best Receiver – Michał Kubiak (the team captain), the Best Middle Blocker – Piotr Nowakowski and the Best Libero – Paweł Zatorski.
– I trust all my players. If I didn’t, this wouldn’t be a national team. I believe in each of my fourteen players. I believe in one hundred per cent and I would put my hands on fire to save each of them. Ufam wszystkim moim zawodnikom. Jeśli bym im nie ufał, to nie byłaby drużyna narodowa. It is the only way and I think it works both sides. It worked. We are the world champions.
Crowds of fans waited at the Okęcie airport for the gold medal volleyball winners. The Polish volleyball players put on the white-red T-shirts with the inscription “World Champion 2018”. The fans sang the national anthem Mazurek Dąbrowskiego to the team and the traditional “Let them live one hundred years” song. They also shouted: “thank you, thank you…”! The songs were accompanied by the OSP Orchestra from Nadarzyn.