The outside hitter and captain of new youth world title-holders France, Mathis Henno, was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship in Argentina. The 1.93m-tall rising French star claimed the tournament’s highest individual recognition and also led a line-up of seven outstanding players who were honoured on the symbolic U19 World Championship Dream Team during a memorable awarding ceremony after the final in San Juan on Friday evening:
Best Setter: Amir Tizi-Oualou (France)
Best Opposite: Thomas Pujol (France)
Best Outside Hitters: Mathis Henno (France) and Lee Woojin (Korea)
Best Middle Blockers: Joris Seddik (France) and Armin Ghelichniazi (Iran)
Best Libero: Seyed Morteza Tabatabaei (Iran)
Henno was the second best server of the competition with as many as 18 aces to his name, six of which he put away in the final alone. As one of his team’s leading scorers, he also produced 66 points in attack and four in blocking towards a tournament total of 88 points.
“It’s amazing to be champions! We have worked a lot since June to get this gold medal. It’s crazy! Being the MVP is a bonus because the first thing for me was to get this medal. The individual prizes are after it, but I worked all this year to get to this point,” Henno told Volleyball World. “This is a crazy team. We have very good feelings with each other and I’m very proud to be captain. We have won all games this summer. We had the European Youth Olympic Festival before these World Champs and we also won it, so this summer was amazing!”
