Olympic champion Volkov will achieve good results in the field of coaching, says Verbov

Olympic volleyball champion Alexander Volkov will achieve good results as a head coach, he has everything for this, said in an interview with , the head coach of Kazan “Zenith » Alexei Verbov .

Last season, 38-year-old Volkov with Zenit won the Russian championship and became national champion six times, after which he announced his retirement as a player. This week, Volkov was appointed as the head coach of Belogorye Belgorod.

What can you say about Volkov’s career?

“It’s a brilliant career, a story for a feature film. He decided to risk his health and possibly his career for the London Olympics. Judging by his medical records, no one can figure out how he is even capable of playing volleyball. Not only serious contraindications, but all the doctors told him that you would not play. But Alexandre, by his character and his crazy will, continued to play, to make himself useful. He is a brilliant volleyball player, an extra player. Mikhailov, Volkov are such volleyball personalities that we must always remember and use them as an example to grow the next generation. Sasha has already finished her playing career, and Max, I hope, will please us for a long time.

Could Volkov still play?

— Yes, another season might. But if we talk about Zenit, we have to look a little ahead. We also have a goal to grow young people, and it is ours, which passed the youth team. We have a lot of guys with a bright future. We spoke with Sasha, he understood it perfectly. It was probably one of my toughest training decisions. Even though it wasn’t easy, I had to do it. Sasha had offers, he could still play. But I also understand it: he didn’t want to go down to the lower club, and that’s probably right.

When you work in such teams, with such athletes and you fight all the time for the highest places, it is already difficult to come down afterwards. Volkov chose a different path – to become a good coach. I wish him good luck in Belogorye. He is a follower of the direction in coaching, to which I adhere. I am very happy that we have more and more such coaches. God forbid that Sasha managed to embody all his thoughts, so that the team followed him, they believed him. I think he will get good results in this area, he has everything for it.

– Didn’t you offer Volkov a position at Zenit, so that he would stay at your HQ?

We didn’t even consider that option. When we spoke with Sasha, after some time I already found out that he had an invitation to another team. Sure, we might think, but we also have a trained pool of coaches. Overall, we did not think about it, – said Verbov in an interview with .

As a member of the Russian national team, Volkov has already won the Olympics, the World Cup and the World League.