Prospects that never were

    Not sure if this is a good idea for a thread or not, but I was just watching an old game from Brazilian Superliga and noticed how many so-called huge prospects we used to have mid 2000's, like Roberto Minuzzi, Thiago Alves and Samuel Fuchs, who managed to play a couple of games in the NT, but never really reached a peak that was expected out of them either due to performance issues or health problems and ended up fading in the background.


    So I was wondering, who were the best prospects over the years that never really took off? Like those players that might've even played for the NT, but quickly got dismissed for basically not being good enough or in a good shape.


    Posted it in this subforum as I'd like to hear from both male and female modalities.

    Oh, good topic to talk about...


    First time I saw Thiago Alves was when I was rewatching some London (I think it was London, not 100% sure right now) matches, and I was like "wow, who is that guy?" Then I watched those Florianopolis finals and realize what Bernardinho saw in that guy back then, he was an awesome player! What happened to him?

    Samara. She was the MVP of the U20 championship and was supposed to be a good prospect for the future. IMO Luizomar killed her career when she played in Osasco.

    Nice thread! I was thinking about opening something like this. I have been following youth and junior European and World championships since 2007 so I've had high hopes on certain players and unfortunately none of them reached a good level. They either play in second division clubs or quit volleyball for good.



    Jolien Wittock (BEL):


    2007 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship - Best scorer


    She was such a dominant Opp! Like twice as good as Van Hecke but for some reason she never managed to stepped up her game to international level and quit volleyball at an early age.


    Jeoselyna Rodríguez (DOM):


    2007 FIVB Girls' U18 Volleyball World Championship "Best Server"


    2013 U23 World Championship "Best Opposite"


    She was supposed to a dominant Opp what DOM needed but besides to junior level competitions. I’ve lost track of her after she transferred to Peruvian league. Probably she also quitted volleyball.


    Neşve Büyükbayram (TUR):


    2009 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship – Best blocker


    She was from the same generation with Naz Aydemir and Büşra Cansu. Although she was considered as big prospect as these names, she never proved herself at senior level and she ended up playing in second division teams recently.


    Ece Hocaoğlu (TUR):


    2011 CEV Girls Youth Volleyball European Championship - Most Valuable Player


    She was supposed to be a good prospect for the Opp position but then she couldn't improve her attacking to next level. She switched her position to OH but it was even worse. She has been playing in low level teams as a bench player. He transferred to a Greek club in the beginning of the season but then they resolved her contract.


    Ceyda Aktaş (TUR):


    2013 FIVB Junior World Championship - Best Opposite


    She is one of the disappointing players of Golden Generation. She was a good scorer Opp but she followed exactly same path of Ece Hocaoğlu since she also switched her position to OH, which didn’t work out for her. Now she is playing in a second division team in Turkey.


    Damla Cakırcoğlu (TUR):


    2011 FIVB Girls Youth World Championship - Most Valuable Player


    2011 FIVB Girls Youth World Championship - Best server


    2012 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship - Most Valuable Player


    She was the team captain and so-called best player of our Golden generation (1994-95). However, mostly due to her height, 179cm, she never managed to be more than a bench player. Her reception is not good to compensate her lack of attacking skills. Nowadays she is at the bench of FB.


    Dilara Bağcı (TUR):


    2011 CEV Girls Youth Volleyball European Championship - Best Libero


    2011 FIVB Girls Youth World Championship - Best Receiver


    2011 FIVB Girls Youth World Championship - Best Libero


    2012 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship - Best Libero


    She was considered, by far, the best libero of her generation, however her performance at senior level was disappointing. The reason was probably staying in bench of Eczacıbaşı during her most important years, I don’t think she is playing anywhere this season (at least not in Sultanlar Ligi)


    Pelin Aroğuz (TUR):


    2013 Girls' Youth European Volleyball Championship – Best Spiker


    2014 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship – Best Spiker


    She was considered as the heir of Neslihan. Very solid attacker, strong server and she was improving year by year. However, she decided to move to USA and quit volleyball afterwards.


    Samara Almeida (BRA):


    2009 FIVB U18 World Championship – Most Valuable Player


    She played in nice clubs like Volero, Cannes and Bergamo but she wasn’t a leading player in any of the clubs she has played.


    Mari Horikawa (JPN):


    2009 FIVB U18 World Championship – Best spiker


    I was very impressed when I first watched her, she has a nice jump and good technique. I am not sure about her club performance (maybe sitenoise can enlighten us her) but she wasn’t in most of the major Japanese NT rosters.


    Sara Klisura (SRB):


    2007 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship - Best server


    She was a very promising balanced OH, I think she was considered even a better prospect than Ana Bjelica (please correct me if you disagree, Serbian users). She started her international career in Bergamo but she never lived up to expectations. Recently she played in some low-level leagues like Romania, Philippine, and lastly in Hungary.


    Danica Radenkovic (SRB):


    2007 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship - Best setter


    She was supposed to be the heir of Maja and some people said the she should be the backup player instead of Zivkoviç. However, she turned out to be another tall but dull setter, after playing in Poland for many years, she recently ended in Kazakhstan.


    Sara Lozo (SRB):


    2014 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship – Best Server


    She seemed to be an all-around OH that Serbia long needed however her development didn’t go well and she ended up an average player nowadays.


    Jovana Vesović (SRB):


    2005 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship – Most Valuable Player


    She was phenomenal player during junior WCh. Her reception was solid, and her attack was also good but her level dropped a lot in the following years. This season she played in a second division club in Turkey.


    Camila Monteiro (BRA):


    2005 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship – Best Blocker


    I don’t know much about her but her teammates Natalia Pereira and Camila Brait reached the senior NT level whereas she never managed to reach that level.


    Natalie Hagglund (USA):


    2011 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship – Best Libero


    I think a lot people, including me, thought that USA finally found the heir of Stacy Sykora. Unfortunately, her pro-career didn’t last long.


    Lisa Izquierdo (GER):


    2012 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship – Best Spiker


    She was a great jumper with a lot of power at attack. Although her reception was shaky, she was considered as a good prospect like Geertiees. However, she had too many injuries and never had chance to recover from them. She ended up playing at low level teams.


    Anastasia Guerra (ITA):


    2013 Girls' Youth European Volleyball Championship – Most Valuable Player


    Starting from her time in Pomi, she didn’t improve much didn’t turn out to the all around player that she was expected to.


    Valeria Battista (ITA):


    2012 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship – Most Valuable Player


    She is still young so it might be unfair to call her as a disappointment. But her development didn’t go as fast as others at her age category and she ended up playing for an A2 team this season. With such a short height it will be hard to play at high level.



    Let me know what you guys think of these players:drink:

    Quote from serdar

    Mari Horikawa (JPN):

    I don't know what happened with her in the intervening years after high school (the Saori/Saori era) and recently (Kurogo/Ishikawa). Seemed like she was making a name for herself when Kimura went to Europe, but alas. I believe she is now pursuing a leadership, perhaps coaching path. She's been Captain the last two years and hardly played.


    I have one nobody's heard of:


    Haruka Maruo

    2017 Intercollegiate Championship - Best server

    2019 Intercollegiate Champion Best Middle Blocker and MVP


    She dabbled in a few U-Squads without glory. As a Middle Blocker she had the hang time to deal with ill-timed sets, did slides and HULK SMASHES, and took care of most of the out of system SOS passes. She had great leadership too, but the pièce de résistance was her back court attack! She did spot-on Neriman style full-body jack-knife clobber kills. She was going to be my new Saori Sakoda. She was my everything, and then went off to play 9 person volleyball with the Panasonic Bluebells after winning the College Championship. What a heartbreak ;(


    #1


    serdar I couldnt agree more!

    Radenkovic was so good in Muszynianka during her first year in Poland, not bad in Sopot but when she came back to LSK from Azerbeijan she was very average.


    Vesovic played in MKS Kalisz last season and she was not bad.


    I think that Guerra was the most promising player for me, I was really surprised when she decided to go to Mulhouse after playing in China. Battista is still very young, she was also the MVP of the junior European Championship in 2018 so I think she has a bright future.

    Quote from serdar

    Anastasia Guerra (ITA):


    2013 Girls' Youth European Volleyball Championship – Most Valuable Player


    Starting from her time in Pomi, she didn’t improve much didn’t turn out to the all around player that she was expected to.

    Poor Guerra, she definetly had a couple of rough years, I believe her main problem is that she's not great at handling pressure, she doesn't strike me as particularly strong on the "mental" department. I still have hope for her though, this year in Chieri she played good and she's still only 24, maybe she won't turn out the great all around player people were hoping, but still a good player for Italian League. Kinda similar to what happened to Diouf, great prospect while she was young but never had that jump in quality to put her at the top of her potential.


    I'd also say Enweonwu with Battista, everyone was expecting great things for her, this years the few times she played for Conegliano I was far from being impressed, but she was coming from a really long stop after her injury so I still give her the benefit of the doubt.


    At this point I'm starting to be scared for Omoruyi as well, she was supposed to be the next big thing but this year she barely played in Club Italia. I'm not sure what happened with her, I guess she had some sort of injury/health issue but there's never been a statement about it.

    Ana Grbac (CRO, S) in her earlier career people called her one of the biggest talents when it comes to setter position, but She never reached what people expected from her. Sometimes She had amazing performance, ECH 2013 especially match against Russia, but that is it.


    Klara Peric (CRO, S) signing 2 years contract with Pomi at age of 18 years old. Become starter because Lloyd got injured. Even though I find her performance just okej for 18 years old, but after that season Pomi ended her contract and from that point She was playing in weak leagues, ending seasons in half season. Rejected NT calls and so on... Now She is only popular on Instagram as volleyball beauty :whistle:


    This video has 5.7 million views :sos:

    1)Radenkovic-> She played as starter in Piacenza at the beginning of the season. Ferretti was injuried (?) and her performance was really good. During the junior catagories she took lots of attention. I think one of the reason why she didn't develop is Terzic. He should have insisted more on her. Danica had way more "pure setter talent" than Mirkovic. But Terzic gave more chance to Mirkovic. (Maybe redstar favour?)


    2)Sara Klisura: She was the Sokolova of U18 WCH in Thailand. She took the attention of Bergamo but another disappointment. She even didn't make the team for junior nt world championship. (Busa played with older generation). Terzic didn't give any chance to her for senior NT.


    3)The libero of 92-93 generation of Serbia: I forgot her name. She was better than Gizem Orge at those times...


    4)Tony Ciarelli: It was my first time seeing men's ncaa. He was so damn good. Micah as freshman setter, they had perfect connection. Super fast. His ball control skills were impressive. He was like Osmany of Ncaa. He made the 2014 WCH team but didn't play pro volleyball. He had way to much potantial than Jeaschke. He could make Rio'16 team, if he went to proball.

    Angela Mcginnis, Danica Radenkovic, Magdalena Damaske (though she's still young)

    Mcginnis played in Besiktas right after she is done with college. She elevated the level of team a lot immideatly. She was under the wings of Lang Ping. But Hugh wanted a cheerleader, put so much work into Thompson. Going to Azerbaijan didn't do any favor to Mcginnis as well.

    I'd also add Kreklow, I honestly had expectations of her to be the starting setter of US national team. She was damn creative, fearless and had really skillful hands.

    Quote from Emil

    I'd also add Kreklow, I honestly had expectations of her to be the starting setter of US national team. She was damn creative, fearless and had really skillful hands.

    We can add her almost on the TOP of this list


    From Eczacibasi, from amazing performance(not in Ecz, and because of her because of wrong structure of team) to nowhere :white:

    Quote from Emil

    I'd also add Kreklow, I honestly had expectations of her to be the starting setter of US national team. She was damn creative, fearless and had really skillful hands.

    She was superb in 2015!:cheesy: The way she distributed the ball to her teammates was a plessure to watch. So sad she couldn't handle the pressure:(

    Oh Danica Radenkovic and Sara Klisura is heartbreaking to me, especially Klisura i simply dont know what happened to her.

    Actually Danica was in some national team action, she played European league 2013 WGP 2014,15,16, but just didn't show enough for biggest competition.

    Quote from Let's go orange

    She was superb in 2015!:cheesy: The way she distributed the ball to her teammates was a plessure to watch. So sad she couldn't handle the pressure:(

    Yes, she was practically THE god of setting pipes, those to Hill, Larson, Robinson and Ozsoy in ECZ, kinda sad that she quit playing.


    It's quite interesting that even she said that she likes setting pipes the most herself.

    Natalie Hagglund retired arter 1 year of pro volley. She was a bench player for an outstanding Popovic. She never had a real chance to prove herself. Same as Vansant.


    Kreklow and her husband retired together, having no interest on playing volleyball anymore. She was strong with NT and Dresdner.


    Many USA players rather retire than stay overseas.

    well those views are clearly for non volleyball related reasons :rolll::rolll::rolll:

    Oh yes, Vansant and Natalie as well, I still remember the hypes Natalie used to get, especially when Nicole Davis was often criticized and there was a need for libero position.


    Probably Malagurski can be added, not that she was just the shadow of junior and some senior careers, but the one she suffered in WC 2011 kinda screwed her, damn, I still remember how much pain she was in, she was screaming and crying. Without that I strongly believe that she would be in Serbian NT and could have made it to Rio 2016. She and Brakocevic kicked everyone's ass in 2011, after the recovery not seeing her name in big clubs roster wasn't surprising anymore