The Balkan Volleyball Association

Sofia, Bulgaria, January 24, 2012. Radostin Stoychev is Bulgaria′s Best Volleyball Coach of 2011 for a

second consecutive year. Matey Kaziyski was selected as Best Male Volleyball Player, while

Strashimira Filipova was declared Best Female Volleyball Player of the year in the Southern European

country, according to the results of the online poll conducted by BGvolleyball.com.

Currently, Bulgarian volleyball fans associate the names of Stoychev and Kaziyski with both their

distinguished Italian club TRENTINO Volley and the national team of Bulgaria. The fact that they

both won their respective polls by a wide margin and adding that Tsvetan Sokolov is the runner-up in

the standings for best player demonstrate the high value the Bulgarian volleyball community assigns

to their contribution to TRENTINO’s fantastic year as champions of Italy, Europe and the world.

Filipova is the new captain of the women’s national team and is viewed by the fans as the most

stable player in what was otherwise a pretty shaky year for the Lionesses. The middle-blocker of

Russian Uralochka-NTMK YEKATERINBURG led Bulgaria onto the top of the Olympic

pre-qualification tournament in Baku and put the future of the country’s women’s volleyball in a

better perspective.

In each categroy BGvolleyball.com nominated seven people with remarkable achievements in 2011. 

2646 unique votes were cast for Best Coach, 2548 for Best Female Player and 3427 for Best Male Player. 

The final results shaped up the following ranking:

Coach:

1. Radostin Stoychev (Trentino Volley*, Bulgaria Men’s NT) - 62.81%

2. Aleksandur Popov (CSKA Sofia - Men) - 13.49%

3. Miroslav Zhivkov (Bulgaria Youth Men’s NT, Pirin Balkanstroy Razlog) - 7.63%

4. Atanas Lazarov (CSKA Sofia, Junior and Youth Women) - 5.14%

5. Viktor Karagyozov (Bulgaria Youth Men’s NT) - 4.88%

6. Yuliya Ivanova (CSKA Sofia - Women) - 4.46%

7. Dragutin Baltic (Bulgaria Women’s NT) - 1.59%

Female:

1. Strashimira Filipova (Bulgaria NT, Uralochka-NTMK Yekaterinburg) - 35.28%

2. Elitsa Vasileva (Norda Foppapedretti Bergamo, Bulgaria NT) - 29.04%

3. Dobriana Rabadzhieva (Rabita Baku, Bulgaria NT) - 12.87%

4. Mariya Karakasheva (CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria NT) - 8.71%

5. Aneliya Todorova (Azerrail Baku) - 6.04%

6. Diana Nenova (Rabita Baku, Bulgaria NT) - 5.93%

7. Iliyana Petkova (Azerrail Baku) - 2.12%

Male:

1. Matey Kaziyski (Trentino Volley, Bulgaria NT) - 48.64%

2. Tsvetan Sokolov (Trentino Volley, Bulgaria NT) - 19.64%

3. Teodor Todorov (Bulgaria NT, CSKA Sofia) - 8.43%

4. Petur Nenkov (Bulgaria Youth NT, Pirin Balkanstroy Razlog) - 7.94%

5. Vladimir Nikolov (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo, Bulgaria NT) - 7.82%

6. Nikolay (CSKA Sofia) - 5.72%

7. Ivaylo Stefanov (CSKA Sofia) - 1.81%

* Teams shown are the ones with which remarkable results were achieved in 2011 and are not necessarily current.