Ivan Zaytsev (volleyball)

Ivan Vyacheslavovich Zaytsev (Italian: [ˈiːvan ˈdzaittsef, -ev]; Russian: Иван Вячеславович Зайцев, IPA: [ɪˈvan vʲɪtɕɪˈslavəvʲɪdʑ ˈzajtsɨf]; born 2 October 1988), nicknamed lo Zar ("the Tsar"), is an Italian professional volleyball player of Russian origin, the captain of Italy men's national volleyball team, a bronze medalist of the Olympic Games London 2012, silver medalist of the European Championship (2011, 2013), bronze medalist of the World League (2013, 2014), Italian Champion (2014) and silver medalist of the Olympic Games Rio 2016

Career

Clubs

He started his career as a setter in 2004, but later moved to the outside hitter role. He started playing in Serie A1 at 16 years old. His first club was RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia, where he played for two seasons. After this, he moved to M. Roma Volley. In the 2007/08 season, he played for Andreoli Latina. Then he came back to M. Roma Volley and played there until 2012, when he signed with Lube Banca Macerata. With this team, he won the Italian SuperCup in 2012 and the Italian Championship 2013/14.[1][2] On 9 May 2014 his departure from Lube was announced.[3] Then for two seasons, he was a player of Russian club VC Dynamo Moscow. 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 2017/18 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 Italy men's national volleyball team in 2008. In the 2013 European Championship Zaytsev was named as the "Best Server".[4] Zaytsev was the main scorer and team leader during World League 2014 and Italy 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 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.

Personal life

Zaytsev is the son of Olympic Champion volleyball player Vyacheslav Zaytsev. He was born in Spoleto, where his father was playing at the time. His mother, Irina Pozdnyakova, is a former competitive swimmer.[6]

On 12 May 2008, after ten years of uninterrupted residence in Italy, Ivan Zaytsev obtained Italian citizenship.[7] His sister Anna (born 1975) also holds Italian citizenship, after she married an Italian in 1993.

On 18 May 2013 Zaytsev married Ashling Sirocchi. In April 2014, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child.[8] On 31 October 2014 his wife Ashling gave birth to their son named Alexander "Sasha".[9] In July 2017 the couple announced they are expecting their second child. On 4 January 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 for the Italian alimentary harvest promoted by the Banco Alimentare Foundation.