Ivan Vyacheslavovich Zaytsev (; rus, Иван Вячеславович Зайцев, , ɪˈvan vʲɪtɕɪˈslavəvʲɪdʑ ˈzajtsɨf, links=y; born 2 October 1988), nicknamed ("the Tsar"), is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

volleyball player This is a list of top international volleyball players. A * Foluke Akinradewo * Carolina Albuquerque * Todor Aleksiev * Ana Ida Alvares * Thiago Soares Alves * Dante Amaral * Andrea Anastasi * Matt Anderson * Stéphane Antiga * Halina As ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

origin, the captain of

Italy men's national volleyball team The Italy men's national volleyball team represents the country in international competitions and friendly matches. The national team is controlled by the Italian Volleyball Federation, the governing body for Volleyball in Italy. It is one of t ...

, a bronze medalist of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, silver medalist of the European Championship ( 2011,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

), bronze medalist of the World League (

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), Italian Champion (2014) and silver medalist of the

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Career

Clubs

He started his career as a setter in 2004, but later moved to the outside hitter role. He played in Serie A1 at 16 year. His first club was RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia, where he played for two seasons. After this, he moved to M. Roma Volley. In the season 2007/2008, he played for

Andreoli Latina Andreoli is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Arnaldo Andreoli (1893–1952), Italian gymnast * Attilio Andreoli (1877–1950), Italian painter * Carlo Andreoli (1840–1908), Italian pianist * David Andreoli (born 19 ...

. Then he came back to M. Roma Volley and played there until 2012. In 2012, Zaytsev signed with Lube Banca Macerata. With this team, he won the Italian SuperCup in 2012 and the Italian Championship 2013/2014. On May 9, 2014, his departure from Lube was announced. Then for two seasons, he was a player of Russian club

VC Dynamo Moscow VC Dynamo Moscow (russian: ВК Динамо Москва) is a Russian professional men's volleyball team based in Moscow which is playing in the Super League. Dynamo Moscow won the title of Russian Championionship for times (2006, 2008, 2021, ...

. he moved to of Al-Arabi SC in Qatar and won the Cup of Emir. Zaytsev came back to Serie A1 and joined Sir Safety Conad Perugia, the overall dominating Team of the 2017/2018 season in Italy. Despite failing to reach Champions League final, after losing to Zenit Kazan again, the team managed to take the bronze medal. Zaytsev moves the following season to Modena Volley as Perugia announced that Wilfredo Leon would join the team, taking his spot. Zaytsev has also expressed the desire to play in his favorite role as opposite spiker again.

National team

He debuted with the

2008. In the European Championship 2013 Zaytsev was named as the "Best Server". Zaytsev was the main scorer and team leader during World League 2014 and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

achieved bronze medal. In the World League, he and his teammates won two consecutive bronze in the 2013 and 2014 editions, the latter played in Italy in Florence. He was appointed to the 2014 World Championship held in Poland. He was the leader of his team in the first round, but in the match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

injured his ankle, so despite the promotion of his team to second round, he did not play. In 2015 Zaytsev and Italian team achieved silver medal of the 2015 European Championship and Zaytsev was named ''Best Opposite Spiker''. In 2016 he achieved a silver medal at the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

Personal life

Zaytsev is the son of Olympic Champion

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

player

Vyacheslav Zaytsev Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Zaytsev (russian: Вячеслав Алексеевич Зайцев, born 12 November 1952) is a Russian former volleyball player who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1976 Summer Olympics, in the 1980 Summer Olympics ...

. He was born in

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

, where his father was playing at the time. His mother, Irina Pozdnyakova, is a former competitive swimmer. On 12 May 2008, after ten years of uninterrupted residence in Italy, Ivan Zaytsev obtained Italian citizenship. His sister Anna (born 1975) also holds Italian citizenship, after she married an Italian in 1993. On May 18, 2013, Zaytsev married Ashling Sirocchi. In April 2014, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child. On October 31, 2014, his wife Ashling gave birth to their son named Alexander "Sasha". In July 2017 the couple announced they are expecting their second child. On January 4, 2018, Ashling gave birth to their daughter named Sienna. They later on had a third child, a girl, Nausicaa. In November 2016, Zaytsev and Ashling Sirocchi were the

testimonials In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, where ...

for the Italian alimentary harvest promoted by the Banco Alimentare Foundation.

Outside of volleyball

Zaytsev has appeared in advertisements for companies including Red Bull,

DHL Express DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DH ...

, Prozis and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. He is also an ambassador for

World Food Programme The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольствен� ...

. He had also voiced the eponymous protagonist in the

dub of the 2018 film ''

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera ...

''.

Sporting achievements

Clubs

CEV Champions League The CEV Champions League is the top official competition for men's volleyball clubs from the whole of Europe. The competition is organised every year by the European Volleyball Confederation. Formula (2018–19 to present) Qualification A tot ...

2016/2017 - with Sir Sicoma Colussi Perugia

CEV Cup The CEV Cup is the second tier official competition for men's Volleyball clubs of Europe. The competition takes place every year. Until 2000, it was the CEV Cup Winners' Cup. In 2000 it was renamed CEV Top Teams Cup and in 2007 it was renamed CE ...

2014/2015, with

Dinamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

FIVB Club World Championship

Brazil 2021 – with Cucine Lube Civitanova

National championships

* 2011/2012 Simple gold cup

Italian SuperCup, with Lube Banca Macerata * 2013/2014 Gold medal with cup

Italian Championship, with Lube Banca Macerata * 2015/2016 Simple gold cup

Emir of Qatar Cup Emir of Qatar Cup ( ar, كأس أمير قطر), also known as the Emir Cup, but changed to Amir Cup starting in 2019, is an association football tournament played every season by 18 first and second division teams. The most successful is Al Sad ...

, with Al Arabi * 2016/2017 Simple gold cup

Italian SuperCup, with

Sir Safety Perugia Sir Safety Umbria Volley is a professional Italian volleyball club based in Perugia. It plays in the highest level of the Italian Volleyball League. In the Italian Volleyball League, the team is known as Sir Safety Susa Perugia, while in the inter ...

* 2017/2018 Simple gold cup

Italian Cup, with

* 2017/2018 Gold medal with cup

Italian Championship, with

National team

* 2011

CEV European Championship * 2012 Bronze medal with cup

* 2013

FIVB World League The FIVB Volleyball World League was an annual international men's volleyball competition. Created in 1990, it was the longest and richest of all the international events organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The wom ...

* 2013

CEV European Championship * 2014 Bronze medal with cup

* 2015

FIVB World Cup * 2015 Bronze medal with cup

CEV European Championship * 2016 Silver medal with cup

Individually

* 2010 Serie A2 – Most Valuable Player * 2012 Italian Championship – Most Valuable Player * 2013

– Best Outside Spiker * 2013 CEV European Championship – Best Server * 2013 Best Italian Volleyball Player by Super Volley * 2015 FIVB World Cup – Best Opposite Spiker * 2015 CEV European Championship – Best Opposite Spiker * 2016

– Most Valuable Player * 2017

CEV Champions League The CEV Champions League is the top official competition for men's volleyball clubs from the whole of Europe. The competition is organised every year by the European Volleyball Confederation. Formula (2018–19 to present) Qualification A tot ...

– Best Outside Spiker

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaytsev, Ivan 1988 births Living people People from Spoleto Sportspeople from the Province of Perugia Italian men's volleyball players Italian people of Russian descent Olympic volleyball players of Italy Volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in volleyball Olympic bronze medalists for Italy Italian Champions of men's volleyball Volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Italy Italian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate volleyball players in Russia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games medalists in volleyball Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy Competitors at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Opposite hitters