Qatar’s Al-Rayyan won the inaugural edition of the AVC Men’s Champions League and triumphed as Asian club champions for the first time in the club’s history, after collecting two silver medals, in 2013 and 2014, and a 2019 bronze medal in the Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championships. It was, in fact, only the second time a Qatari team won the continental crown, after Al Arabi Doha topped the podium in 2012. With this crown, Al-Rayyan completed an impressive golden quintuple this season, as they added it to the Qatari league title, the Qatar Cup trophy, Qatar’s Emir Cup trophy and the WAVA West Asian championship title, all of which they collected earlier this year.

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In Sunday’s final at the Shimadzu Arena in Kyoto, Noumory Keita, Nimir Abdel-Aziz and their Al-Rayyan teammates hammered out a three-set victory over Japan’s Osaka Bluteon, who settled for silver, the third continental medal in their showcase, after the 2010 bronze and the 2019 silver. Both clubs had already secured their tickets to the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship by winning Saturday’s semifinals and reaching the gold medal showdown.

Japan’s Suntory Sunbirds Osaka took the inaugural AVC Men’s Champions League bronze. It was the club’s fifth medal in the history of the continental club competitions. They triumphed as Asian champions in 2023, finished runners-up in 2001 and in 2022, and claimed their first bronze in 2008.

In Sunday’s final in Japan, Malian striker Noumory Keita powered Al-Rayyan to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-17) shutout of Osaka Bluteon with a match-high 21 points. He served four aces and spiked 17 points at a 63% success rate in attack. Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz added another 15 points, including two blocks and an ace. Outside hitter Shoma Tomita was Bluteon’s leading scorer with nine points to his name.

Earlier on Sunday, Suntory Sunbirds Osaka produced an emphatic 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-19) sweep of the third-place match against Iran’s Foolad Sirjan Iranian, leaving last year’s Asian champions off the podium this time. Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy led the Japanese team with a match-high 20 points. He fired four of Suntory Sunbirds’ nine aces in the match and hammered 15 kills in attack at an impressive success rate of 71%. Cuban outside hitter Alain De Armas added another 10 points towards the victory, while opposite Mohsen Delavari was Foolad’s most prolific scorer with 14 points.

Al-Rayyan’s 33-year-old Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz claimed a well-deserved AVC Men’s Champions League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He was also recognized on the tournament Dream Team along with setter Milos Stevanovic (Al-Rayyan), outside hitters Miguel Lopez (Bluteon) and Ran Takahashi (Suntory Sunbirds), middle blockers Papemaguette Diagne (Al-Rayyan) and Larry Ik Evbade-Dan (Bluteon), and libero Tomohiro Yamamoto (Bluteon).

AVC Men’s Champions League 2025: results, statistics and standings

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