Who wore number 18 in volleyball?

What number you wear can often be a big part of a player’s volleyball identity. Some players care more than others about the number they don, but even for those who are indifferent to them, those numbers help connect players with young fans and can even have sentimental value. Like it or not, numbers are a big part of what can make this game great.

Dante Amaral

Dante Guimarães Santos do Amaral is a former Brazilian professional volleyball player, who is best known as Dante. Measuring 2.01 metres (6 ft 7 in) and 86 kilograms (190 lb), he played in the position of outside hitter. He was born in Itumbiara.

Dante began his professional career in 1999 with the club Tres Corações. After another two years at Brazilian clubs Suzano São Paulo and Minas Belo Horizonte, in 2002 he got transferred to Italy, playing with Pallavolo Modena, where he won the CEV Cup. In 2005 he joined Greek team Panathinaikos. He won the Greek championship in 2006 and the Greek Cup and Super Cup in 2007.

Dante was also a member of the Brazil men’s national volleyball team since 1999. Among the titles he has won with Brazil are the Olympic gold medal in 2004 and the World Championship in 2002 and 2006. In both the 2004 Olympic Games and 2006 World Championship he was nominated as the Best Spiker, while he was the best blocker in 2005 World League.

Amaral won the Best Spiker award in the 2011 South American Championship. His team won the Gold Medal and the 2011 World Cup berth.

Ricardo Lucarelli

Ricardo Samuel Lucarelli Santos de Souza is a Brazilian volleyball player, known as a member of the Brazil men’s national volleyball team and Italian club Trentino Volley, 2016 Olympic Champion, silver medalist of the 2014 World Championship, gold medalist of the 2019 World Cup, multiple-time South American Champion (2013, 2015, 2017 and 2021).

In 2010 he started playing for Minas Tênis Clube. In 2013 he signed a contract with SESI São Paulo, and in 2015 he was hired by the club Funvic Taubaté.

The young Lucarelli defended the junior national team in 2010, when he won the gold medal in the South American Championship. In the next year, he was on the group that finished fifth in the World Championship. In 2013 Lucarelli won the World Grand Champions Cup, a gold medal at the South American Championship and a silver medal at the World League, where he was named the Best Outside Spiker (together with Ivan Zaytsev). In 2014 he was a major player in Brazilian team, which won the silver medal at the World League 2014 in Florence, Italy.

He was again named the Best Outside Spiker, together with teammate Murilo Endres. One of the starts in the Bernardinho team, Lucarelli was in the court in all the games of FIVB World League and the conquest of the South American Games in 2015. In the special year of 2016, Lucarelli was a key player in the gold medal campaign in the Rio Olympic Game. He was part of the team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He played the last three games, against Argentina (quarterfinals), Russia (semifinals) and Italy (finals).

Aleksey Kuleshov

Aleksey Vladimirovich Kuleshov is a former Russian volleyball player, a member of Russia men’s national volleyball team. He is also known as a coach at Dynamo Moscow.

Kuleshov was a member of the men’s national team that won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Playing as a middle-blocker he won the 2002 Volleyball World League with Russia, followed by a bronze at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Marko Podraščanin

Marko Podraščanin is a Serbian volleyball player, known as a member of the Serbia men’s national volleyball team and Italian club Itas Trentino, participant of the Olympic Games (Beijing 2008 and London 2012), bronze medalist at the 2010 World Championship, 2011 European Champion, 2019 European Champion, gold medalist at the 2016 World League.

On July 19, 2015, Podraščanin was part of the Serbian national team that made it to the final of the World League. Serbia finished silver medalists after losing 0-3 to France in the final.

Alexander Volkov

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov is a Russian volleyball player, known as a member of Russia men’s national volleyball team and Russian club Zenit Kazan. He was 2012 Olympic Champion, bronze medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games, gold medalist of the 2011 World Cup, silver medalist of the 2007 European Championship, multi-medalist of the World League.

With Dynamo Moscow he won the bronze medal at the Men’s CEV Champions League 2006–07 and was awarded the Final Four “Best Blocker”.

Volkov competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where Russia claimed the bronze medal. He and the Russian Team won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Leandro Vissotto Neves

Leandro Vissotto Neves is a Brazilian volleyball player, known as a member of Brazil men’s national volleyball team and Brazilian club EMS Taubaté Funvic. Vissotto is a silver medalist of the Olympic Games London 2012, World Champion 2010, silver medalist of the 2014 World Championship, bronze medalist of the 2011 World Cup, multi-medalist of the World League, 2015 Japanese Champion, 2018 Brazilian Superliga Champion and MVP of final.

On October 10, 2010 Brazil, including Vissotto, won a title of World Champion 2010. On August 12, 2012 Vissotto and his teammates lost in the final of Olympic Games with Russia (2-3) and achieved a silver medal, although Vissotto missed the final due to injury. On September 21, 2014 his national team lost with Poland in final of the World Championship 2014 (1-3) and Vissotto achieved his second medal of World Championship, this time it was silver.

Tijana Bošković

Tijana Bošković is a Serbian volleyball player known for playing with the Serbia women’s national volleyball team. She was the leading scorer for the Serbia women’s national volleyball team in her debut in the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship, and 2017 Women’s European Volleyball Championship. She has won the Serbian Championship title (2013-2014 season) and Serbian Super Cups (2013 and 2014). She became part of the club Eczacıbaşı VitrA in 2015-2016 season.

At the national team level she won the European Junior Girls Championship in 2014 and was selected as Most Valuable Player of the tournament. She was the leading scorer for the Serbia Women’s National Volleyball Team when she made her debut in the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship. She won a silver medal with the national team in Rio 2016 Olympic Games, a gold medal at the 2017 CEV European Championship and a gold medal at the 2018 FIVB World Championship, where she was selected as the MVP in two consecutive years.

At the 2019 European Volleyball Championship she led her team to clinch the European title for the second time in a row and became the MVP. Being selected as the 2019 CEV Female Volleyball Player of the Year, Bošković has recorded an impressive achievement by receiving that award for the third consecutive year.

She set women’s world record for spike speed of 110.3 km/h.

Taismary Agüero

Taismary Agüero Leiva is a Cuban-born Italian volleyball player. She is the first player to represent two women’s volleyball national team to win Major titles (1995 FIVB World Cup, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 1998 FIVB World Championship, 1999 FIVB World Cup and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games for Cuba, 2007 FIVB World Cup for Italy).

Born in Yaguajay in the province of Sancti Spiritus, she began to play volleyball when she was eight years old. Two years later, she entered in the Cerro Pelado Training Center in Havana. In 1993 she won the junior women’s volleyball world championship and then joined the senior national team. She did not participate in the 1994 FIVB Women’s World Championship, but won the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta two years later. In 1998 together with Mireya Luis, Regla Bell, Ana Ibis Fernandez, and Mirka Francia, Agüero won the 1998 FIVB Women’s World Championship in Japan.

In 2000, she was a member of the Cuban Woman volleyball national team that won the gold medal at the Sydney. In the summer 2001, she left the Cuban National Team during a tournament in Switzerland and applied for political asylum in Italy. The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) allowed her to play in Italy despite the opposition of Cuban volleyball federation and she joined Pallavolo Sirio Perugia, an Italian volleyball club, where she had just played before during the 1998–1999 and 1999–2000 seasons. At the end of 2006 she became an Italian citizen after marrying Alessio Botteghi an Italian physiotherapist known for working with the Turkish National Women Volleyball team. In the summer of 2007 she joined the Italian national team.

Camila Brait

Camila de Paula Brait is a female international volleyball player from Frutal, Brazil, who plays as a libero. She is known as a defender for Osasco Voleibol Clube and the Brazilian national team.

She won the silver medal while representing Brazil at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

She started her career defending URS/Sacramento. After that, she played in several other teams, which were SESI/Uberlândia, Praia Clube-MG, São Caetano/MonBijou and Osasco, named Finasa/Osasco at the time she joined the club.

Playing with Osasco, Brait won the gold medal and the Best Libero award in the 2012 FIVB Club World Championship held in Doha, Qatar.

Brait won the silver medal in the 2014 FIVB Club World Championship after her club lost 0–3 to the Russian Dinamo Kazan in the championship match.

Brait played her first international game against Venezuela. She participated in the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship, held in Japan, helping her country finish in the second position.

Brait won the Best Receiver, Best Digger and Best Libero awards when her national team won the silver medal at the 2015 Pan American Games being defeated in the championship match 0–3 to the United States.

She was selected to the national squad in order to compete in the women’s volleyball tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She won the silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics after Brazil lost 0–3 to United States in the gold medal match of the women’s volleyball tournament.

Bethania De La Cruz

Bethania de la Cruz de Peña is a female volleyball player from the Dominican Republic, who won the gold medal with the Dominican women’s national team at the 2009 NORCECA Championship and the 2010 Pan-American Cup.

Maja Poljak

Maja Poljak is a Croatian volleyball player. She is known for playing as a middle blocker for Dinamo Moscow. She was a member of the Women’s National Team that won the silver medal at the 1999 European Championship in Italy.

Maja won the 2010–11 CEV Champions League with her team Vakifbank Istanbul, and won the “Best Blocker” award.

Samanta Fabris

Samanta Fabris is a Croatian volleyball player. She is known for playing as an opposite hitter for Russian club WVC Dynamo Kazan.

She also chose to represent the Croatia women’s national volleyball team. Fabris was part of the team at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Italy, and 2021 Women’s European Volleyball League, winning a silver medal.