Collecting "Gazprom-Ugra" of all time: diagonal
Diagonal in "Gazprom-Ugra" were different, but all, without exception, are bright personalities, and all deserve a place in the virtual club Hall of Fame. It's worth starting, perhaps, from Andrey Kobzar, with which the team made its way in the mid-nineties of the last century from the “tower” to the Super League. Not possessing outstanding physical data, Andrew represented, Nevertheless, formidable strength - due to its indomitable character and excellent technique. Few people know, that Kobzar Sr. began his volleyball career, like his son Igor, as a setter.
In the first season in the Superleague, the club's first legionnaire played diagonally for ZSK-Gazprom (and one of the first legionnaires in the country as a whole) Radoslav Arsov from Bulgaria. His left hand did a lot of good, and changed it for four whole seasons of the legendary Robert Prygel, Poland national team player, our first nominee for getting into the Gazprom-Ugra dream team. Club subscribers tg-channel put him in third place (28% votes), сделав одним из основных претендентов на попадание в состав.
After Prygel season 2007-2008 saved the Slovenian diagonal Sasa Gadnik. curious, what about growth 193 see Sasa was the shortest in the starting lineup of Gazprom-Ugra, yielding two centimeters even to the libero Alexander Yanutov - a unique case. After Gadnik were Vasily Nosenko, Anton Mysin (11% in the vote), Alexey Cheremisin (7%) - each one is strong and unique in its own way. Cheremisina Rafael Khabibullin long wanted to see in the composition, but the player got to Surgut already at the end of his career. But with Konstantin Bakun it turned out differently - he was invited from Novy Urengoy during the season 2014-2015, and the diagonal immediately flashed, contributing a lot to the team's fourth place in the Super League.
Bakun played the lead violin the following season as well.: Gazprom-Ugra once again stopped a step away from the pedestal, and also reached the final of the CEV Cup, where he lost to "Berlin" largely because, that the leading players did not play in the second leg in Surgut due to the well-known story with meldonium. I remember, Germans after the first game in Berlin (2:3) called Bakun a "monster" and were frankly afraid of him. The game for Surgut gave Konstantin a ticket to the Russian Olympic team and brought an “enchanted” fourth place in Rio de Janeiro.
After Bakun, who became the undisputed leader of our voting in the tg-channel (61% votes), it was difficult to maintain the set level, but Alexander Chefranov tried and quite adequately played three seasons (14% votes). who succeeded him Maciej muse Thanks to the work of the whole team for him, in turn, he thanked Surgut with the title of Super League top scorer, but then he decided to look for a better share and did not particularly succeed in this. One bright season is wonderful, but not enough for a nomination.
But Nikita Alekseev, also having played only one season so far, received a nomination for character and vision for the future. His second place in voting with 42% rating says a lot: mainly about, that Surgut fans see him as a new team leader for the coming years. Let's not forget about Rajabdibire Shahbanmirzaev, a whirlwind that broke into the Super League in 2020 and successfully complemented the duet of diagonals last season - with him, certainly, the future of Gazprom-Ugra is also connected.
And here, as in the case of binders, the opinion of the press service diverged from the opinion of the fans. We believe, what is more significant in the position of the diagonal of all time, along with Konstantin Bakun, Robert Prygel looks.
