The investments made in recent years in both national teams and clubs, the stable management, and the emphasis placed on infrastructure are continuing to bear fruit.
Turkey, which virtually embargoed international competitions at the club level in women’s volleyball for the last 12 years, has also become the world’s leading national team.
“The Sultans of the Net,” whose history includes championships at the 1992 Balkan Championship, the 2005 Mediterranean Games, the 2014 CEV European League, the 2015 European Games, and the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games, recently experienced their greatest success by winning the gold medal at the FIVB Nations League.
Turkey won its sixth medal as a women’s volleyball world champion, securing its sixth medal at the senior national team level. With this great success, the Crescent-Star team topped the world rankings for the first time in its history. Finally, we were able to directly translate the successes we achieved in clubs to the national team.
Vakıfbank, the Real Madrid of women’s volleyball at the club level
Vakıfbank has won its sixth championship this year, winning the championship in the CEV Champions League, the premier tournament in women’s volleyball. This marks the eighth time Turkish teams have achieved this feat. For my readers who don’t follow volleyball, I should point out that the CEV Champions League is as like the Champions League in soccer.
At the club level, Turkey has won eight European championships since 2011. In addition to winning the CEV Champions League six times, Turkey holds the title of the team that has won the most championships in the competition, and Fenerbahçe and Eczacıbaşı have also won the championship in this competition twice. It’s important to emphasize that Vakıfbank is as successful in volleyball as Real Madrid in soccer. VakıfBank won the trophy in 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023, while Fenerbahçe won in 2012 and Eczacıbaşı in 2015.
Turkish teams again crowned world champions at the club level.
There’s a tournament above the CEV Champions League: the Women’s World Club Championship, organized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) since 1991. This means that after winning the CEV Champions League, you’re crowned European Champions and enter competition with teams from around the world. Turkey has won the championship seven times with three different teams, making it the most successful country in this field.
VakıfBank also holds the championship title with four, with Eczacıbaşı winning twice and Fenerbahçe once. For my readers who know soccer but aren’t familiar with volleyball tournaments, you can think of this tournament as being like the Champions League winner Real Madrid playing against the Libertadores Cup winner, which determines the best club in South America, and being declared the best club in the world.
The CEV Cup and the CEV Challenge Cup
There are two other tournaments following the CEV Champions League. Turkey has won five championships in the Women’s CEV Cup, Europe’s second-largest event, and four in the Women’s CEV Challenge Cup, the third-largest tournament.
Eczacıbaşı, which first won the Women’s CEV Cup in 1999, took the trophy to its museum in 2018 and 2022. VakıfBank Güneş Sigorta won the title in 2004, and Fenerbahçe in 2014.
Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyespor also won the Women’s CEV Challenge Cup, bringing Turkey international trophies in 2015 and 2017. Other championships in this organization were won by VakıfBank Güneş Sigorta in 2008 and Yeşilyurt in 2021.
Turkish teams, with their historic club successes, are amongst the best in Europe and the world.
In conclusion, statistics don’t lie. Let me remind you of the championships won by Turkish teams:
Women’s World Club Championship: 7 times with 3 different teams
CEV Champions League Championship: 8 times with 3 different teams
CEV Cup Championship: 5 times with 4 different teams
CEV Challenge: 4 times with 3 different teams
The National Team’s Failure to Match the Success of the Club Teams
The ‘Sultans of the Net’ couldn’t replicate the success they had in the club tournaments they dominated at the national team level. They did have success in relatively less prominent tournaments. For example, they won the 1992 Balkan Championship, the 2005 Mediterranean Games, the 2014 CEV European League, the 2015 European Games, and the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games. However, none of these matches matched the feat of winning the most major tournaments in Europe and the world. That is, until recently, when she won the gold medal at the FIVB Nations League.
FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League in Arlington, Texas
The FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League is an international tournament contested by the senior women’s national teams that are members of the FIVB (French: Fédération Internationale de Volleyball), the global governing body of volleyball. Its English abbreviation is VNL (Volleyball Nation’s League). The inaugural tournament took place between May and July 2018, with the finals being played in Nanjing, China. The USA won the inaugural tournament, defeating Turkey in the final. Various changes have been made to the tournament format as of 2022. The USA won the championship consecutively in 2018, 2019, and 2021, followed by Italy, and most recently, Turkey. The USA is the most successful country, with Turkey second. Turkey currently at the top of the world rankings is a great achievement. I can share the table below, based on medal standings. In this table, you can see the countries that are the leading countries in women’s volleyball:
| Ranking | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | USA | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Türkiye | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Italy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Brazil | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 | China | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | Poland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Serbia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total (7 Nations) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | |
At the tournament in Arlington, Turkey claimed the championship by defeating Italy 3-0 in the quarterfinals, the USA 3-1 in the semifinals, and China 3-1 in the final. In other words, Turkey defeated three of the top five volleyball nations (one of which is Turkey) in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, earning a well-deserved championship.
The lion’s share of the credit in this tournament, of course, belongs to the women’s volleyball team. They all fought like lionesses, never gave up a single match, and demonstrated their superiority over all other teams. Kudos to our women. We are proud of them.
I’m sharing a summary of our 3-1 final win over China:
The ‘best’ on our team
By the way, all our volleyball players played brilliantly, both individually and as a team. Melissa Vargas, whom we transferred from Cuba, granted citizenship, and later played for the Turkish National Team, scored 227 points in 11 matches for the national team, including 19 serves (aces) and 14 blocks. After Vargas, Ebrar Karakurt scored the most points with 193. Melissa Vargas crowned her success by being named the ‘Most Valuable Player’ (MVP) and ‘Best Opposite Spiker’ of the National League.
The league’s dream team also included Zehra Güneş, ‘Best Middle Blocker,’ and Gizem Örge, ‘Best Libero.’ Here’s the dream team:
The league’s dream team also included Zehra Güneş, ‘Best Middle Blocker,’ and Gizem Örge, ‘Best Libero.’ Here’s the dream team:
Ten volleyball players who played for the national team, which finished second in the Nations League in 2018, third in 2021, and won the gold medal this year, have previously won medals.
Cansu Özbay, Saliha Şahin, Eda Erdem Dündar, Zehra Güneş, Simge Aköz, Ebrar Karakurt, Gizem Örge, Aslı Kalaç, Ayça Aykaç, and Hande Baladın, who were on the squad in 2018 and 2021, are listed as national volleyball players who have previously won medals. This year, in addition to these names, Melissa Vargas, Derya Cebecioğlu, İlkin Aydın, and Elif Şahin, all of whom were on the National Team roster, became the first volleyball players to win a medal.
Daniele Santarelli’s Contribution
On the other hand, I can’t help but mention two individuals who made significant contributions to this championship. The first is Daniele Santarelli (born 8 June 1981, Foligno), the Italian coach of our national volleyball team. He serves as head coach of the Turkish women’s national volleyball team and the Italian club Imoco Volley. He previously coached the Serbian women’s national team, winning the world championship in 2022. During his time at Imoco Valley, Santarelli won four league titles (2015, 2018, 2019, and 2021), three Italian Cups (2017, 2020, and 2021), and four Italian Super Cups (2017, 2020, and 2021). She also won the Club World Championship once on the international stage (2019).
Santarelli took over as head coach of the Croatia women’s national volleyball team in the summer of 2018 and served until the end of the 2021 European Championship. With Croatia, she won two silver medals in the Europa League. In 2022, she took charge of the Serbian women’s team. That same year, she won a bronze medal in the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League and the championship at the 2022 Women’s World Volleyball Championship held in Poland and the Netherlands.
Recent Turkish successes
In early 2023, she was appointed head coach of the Turkish women’s national volleyball team and immediately made an impact, winning the 2023 Nations League championship with the national team. Italian head coach Daniele Santarelli, who was announced as the head coach of the Turkish Women’s National Volleyball Team on 27 December 2022, made his debut in charge of the national team with a match against South Korea in the first week of the FIVB Nations League held in Antalya from 31 May – 4 June.
During this period, under Santarelli’s leadership, the national team achieved nine wins and three losses in 12 matches in the first three weeks of the league, qualifying for the finals in third place. He then defeated strong rivals Italy, the USA, and China in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, leading the team to the world championship.
Santarelli won the championship in his first event as the Sultans of the Net and also won the gold medal at the FIVB Nations League for the first time in his career.
During his national team career, Santarelli won two silver medals with Croatia in the Europa League, a bronze medal with Serbia in the FIVB Women’s Nations League, and a gold medal at the 2022 FIVB Women’s World Championship.
In all the interviews, our volleyball players talked about Santralli’s positive contributions to the team, especially how she motivated and lifted them up when they were struggling. Another particularly important aspect of her work was strategically ensuring that our two top strikers, Melissa Vargas and Ebrar Karakurt, played in harmony.
Üstündağ and Successful Management
Top-level executives, led by the successful federation president Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, have consistently raised the bar for volleyball with every step they’ve taken over the years. That said, there was criticism for the national team’s lack of success. Here, too, they made a final, successful move by appointing Santrelli, another promising player, to lead the team after Guidetti’s departure, who had served volleyball well for years. Thanks to this, our Women’s National Volleyball Team became World Champions and reached first place in the world rankings. I’m also sharing the post-championship interview with Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, in which he explains the entire process in detail:
I’m also sharing the interview conducted with Federation President Mehmet Akif Üstündağ on TRT Spor, around the time our National Volleyball Team’s Santarelli was appointed as the national team coach:
Hats off to both our National Team Coach Santarelli and our Federation President Üstündağ. Bravo!
I hope they will set an example for all young women in Turkey going forward, and that they will be looked up to, just as their volleyball sisters were in the past, and that new generations will rise to achieve successive successes in the future. Of course, I believe the next goal should be the Olympic championship.
Atatürk’s women demonstrated how successful our country’s people can be globally with the right organization and mindset. I wish them the best in other sports, in our international initiatives, and in our state. I once again wholeheartedly congratulate these wonderful women.
Note: I used the following sources in this article:
2) https://olympics.com/en/news/volleyball-nations-league-vnl-2023-women-finals-arlington-texas-preview
3) https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIVB_Voleybol_Kad%C4%B1nlar_Milletler_Ligi
4) https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniele_Santarelli
5) https://www.trthaber.com/haber/spor/filenin-sultanlari-dunyanin-bir-numarasi-oldu-782217.html
