Iran’s Esfandiar leads Dream Team in FIVB

Iran team captain Amirhossein Esfandiar was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019, which came to a close Saturday night in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Iranians were crowned World champions following a nail-biting five-set victory over Italy, and Esfandiar was a key contributor to their win. As MVP, the talented wing spiker headlined the competition’s Dream Team.

These outstanding players were selected by officials and they each took home special individual trophies for their distinctions. Esfandiar’s teammate Morteza Sharifi and Italy’s Daniele Lavia were named Best Outside Spikers. Italy’s Lorenzo Cortesia and Brazil’s Guilherme Voss Messias Dos Santos were both honoured as Best Middle Blockers. Towering Russian youngster Maksim Sapozhkov was named the Best Opposite Spiker, while Italy’s Lorenzo Sperotto was selected as the Best Setter. The final individual award of the tournament for Best Libero went to Iran’s Mohammadreza Hazratpourtalatappeh.

The Dream Team were awarded their respective accolades by Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) President Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) Board Member and Women’s Sport Committee Chairwoman Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Executive Committee Chairman and BVA Vice-President Jehad Khalfan, and Control Committee President Slobodan Milosevic, in the presence of other BVA and FIVB officials.

Meanwhile, Iran’s team members expressed their emotions following their historic success of claiming their first-ever gold medals in the biennial Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) competition. Esfandiar commented: “This medal means all our hard work during training; all our blood, sweat, and tears; all our hardships and pain. We have had extremely difficult preparation to win this championship.

“Bahrain has been a very good and very memorable place for my volleyball career. For the last three years, I have come here – I have won the gold medal with this team. We have won the FIVB U19, Asian U20, and now another world championship for U21. This is a complete set for us.” Sharifi added: “I do not have enough words to say how I feel. I can only say that I am really happy. I dedicate my medal to my mother and my father. This gold medal is a very important medal in my volleyball life.”