Who wore number 14 in volleyball?

The fortunate players who get to choose their own number often choose a lucky number, stick with the one they’ve always worn or wear a number in honor of a family member. Some players though, choose a number that’s cute or a deep and meaningful number.

Ivan Miljković

Ivan Miljković is a Serbian volleyball player, known as a member of Serbia men’s national volleyball team in 1998–2012, Olympic Champion 2000, European Champion (2001, 2011), medalist of World Championship, World Grand Champions Cup, and World Cup and World League.

After this success he changed his club and started playing for Italian Lube Banca Macerata. In 2001 the Yugoslav team won the European Volleyball Championship in Ostrava, Czech Republic. With his club, Lube Banca Macerata, he also won the Champions League (2001), twice the Italian Cup (2001, 2003) and three times the CEV Cup (2001, 2005, 2006).

On 18 July 2007 he signed a contract with the M. Roma Volley. The following year, on 5 July 2008, he announced that he will be continuing his career in Greece. In 2009 he won the Greek Championship and the Greek Cup and in 2010 the championship. On 30 June 2010 he signed a two-year contract for Fenerbahçe SK of Turkey. With Fenerbahçe he won 2011 and 2012 Turkish volleyball league, 2012 Turkish Cup, 2011 and 2012 Turkish Super Cup and 2014 European Challenge Cup. Miljković played for Fenerbahçe Grundig in 2010–2015. In 2015 he signed with Italian club Cucine Lube Civitanova. In 2016 Miljković went back to Turkey League.

He ended up his career after achieving gold medal of Turkish Championship in May 2017 with Halkbank Ankara team.

He played in the national team of FR Yugoslavia for the first time a year later (on 4 October 1998, in a game against Turkey). In 2000 in Sydney the Yugoslav national team (members of which were also Vladimir Grbić, Nikola Grbić, Andrija Gerić, Goran Vujević) won the Olympic gold medal. In the final match against Russia Ivan Miljković scored the last point and after that fell on his knees. In March 2012, he has officially retired from the Serbian National Team after 14 years and 288 played matches. He is the first player to win MVP of the FIVB World League 3 times in a row (2002, 2003, 2004) and first player to win 4 MVP awards during the FIVB World League (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006).

Miljković is regularly on the top of the best spikers list in the tournaments and has a great jump serve. He is very well built and extremely strong opposite hitter who has variety of different shots; he can swing the ball away with a power or using his good technique. For an extremely big player Miljković moves surprisingly well. He has a good footwork and is quick from his feet; therefore he is able to generate good speed for his approach from any distance to the ball.

Fernanda Venturini

Fernanda Porto Venturini is a former volleyball player from Brazil. She represented her native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She won the bronze medal with the Women’s National Team

Rose Magers-Powell

Rose Mary Magers-Powell is a retired female volleyball player from the United States, who won the silver medal with the USA National Women’s Team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California under the guidance of the coach Arie Selinger. She played college women’s volleyball with the Houston Cougars.

She is also known as the head coach at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fabiana Oliveira

Fabiana “Fabi” Alvim de Oliveira is a retired volleyball player from Brazil who won the gold medal at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Fabiana started playing volleyball at the age of 13, specializing in defense – and later the libero position – due to her short height. De Oliveira was first called up to the Brazil women’s national volleyball team in 2002, under the coach Marco Aurélio Motta. She lost her place under his replacement, José Roberto Guimarães, and only returned to being a mainstay of the team in 2005. At the 2007 Pan American Games, held in Rio de Janeiro, de Oliveira and the Brazilian team won the silver medal.

One year later de Oliveira won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and was chosen as the best libero of the tournament.

At the 2011 Pan-American Cup, de Oliveira was given the “Best Receiver” award, also winning the gold medal with her national team.

Oliveira was part of the national team who won the gold medal at the 2011 Pan American Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico. She was also part of the Brazilian team that won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She also took the 2013 South American Championship with her national team, winning the Best Libero award.

Oliveira won the silver medal at the 2013 Club World Championship, playing with Unilever Vôlei.

During the 2015 FIVB Club World Championship, Oliveira played with the Brazilian club Rexona Ades Rio and her team lost the bronze medal match to the Swiss Voléro Zürich.

Oliveira decided to retire from volleyball after the 2017/2018 season of the Brazilian Superliga, when her team Sesc Rio won the silver medal. Oliveira is also known as a volleyball commentator.

Alessandro Fei

Alessandro Fei is an Italian men’s volleyball player, known as a member of Italy men’s national volleyball team and Italian club Ninfa Latina. Fei is a silver and bronze medalist at the Olympic Games, World Champion 1998, European Champion (2003, 2005), silver medalist of the European Championship 2001, medalist of the World League (gold in 1999, 2000, silver in 2001, 2004, bronze in 2003), CEV Champions League winner, multiple-time CEV Cup winner, Challenge Cup winner, and multiple-time Italian Champion.

He was chosen among the 2005 Italian League All-Star team. With Sisley Treviso, Fei won the 2005-06 CEV Champions League and was awarded “Most Valuable Player” and “Best Server”.

Nimir Abdel-Aziz

Nimir Abdel-Aziz is a Dutch volleyball player, known as a member of the Netherlands men’s national volleyball team and Italian club Modena Volley, gold medalist of the 2012 European League.

Abdel Aziz made his debut for the Dutch national team in 2011 against Belgium. He won the European League in 2012, after beating Turkey in the final.

Aleksandar Atanasijević

Aleksandar Atanasijević is a Serbian volleyball player, known as a member of the Serbia men’s national volleyball team, participant at the Olympic Games (London 2012), European Champion (2011, 2019), Italian Champion (2018). At the professional club level, he chose to play for PGE Skra Bełchatów.

His first professional club was Serbian OK Partizan. His trainer was Slavko Barandzic. In 2011, he moved to Polish Champion, one of the most successful Polish teams of PlusLiga – PGE Skra Bełchatów. In his first season in Poland, he was mainly a substitute player for Mariusz Wlazły. In the second season, he has become a major player on his position repeatedly winning the statuette for best player of the match. With PGE Skra Belchatów, he won a silver medal of the Polish Championship, Polish Cup, and a silver medal of the Club World Championship.

In 2012, Atanasijević won a silver medal of the CEV Champions League after the match against Zenit Kazan during the Final Four held in Łódź, Poland. In 2013, he moved to Italian club – Sir Safety Perugia. In 2014, he won a silver medal of the Italian Championship after losing matches against Lube. In May 2014, he signed a new three-year contract with Sir Safety Perugia.

He is a gold medalist of 2011 European Championship, and bronze medalist of the 2013 European Championship. He was a member of the national team at the Olympic Games London 2012. On 19 July 2015, the Serbian national team with him in squad reached the final of the 2015 World League, but lost to France (0–3), and eventually achieved a silver medal. Atanasijević received an individual award for the Best Opposite Spiker of the tournament.

Rodrigo Santana

Rodrigo Santana, commonly known as Rodrigão, is a Brazilian former volleyball player who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics. With Brazil team, Santana won the World Championship in 2002 Argentina, 2006 Japan and 2010 Italy. He also won the World Cup, the Pan-American Games, and the South American Championship, in Chile, where he was elected as the Best attacker.

He was born in São Paulo.

Eda Erdem Dündar

Eda Erdem Dündar is a Turkish professional volleyball player. She is known for playing with both Fenerbahçe SK and the national team and being the captain of both teams.

Eda Erdem has been playing for Fenerbahçe with jersey number 14 since 2008. Before she joined Fenerbahçe, she had played for Beşiktaş for 4 years (2004–2008). She played more than 300 times for the Turkish national team.

In Doha, Qatar, Eda won the 2010 FIVB World Club Championship, playing with Fenerbahçe and earned the Best Server award.

Eda Erdem also won the Best Server award and the silver medal with her national team at the 2011 European League.

She played with Fenerbahçe in the 2012 FIVB Club World Championship held in Doha and helped her team to win the bronze medal after defeating Puerto Rico’s Lancheras de Cataño 3-0.