Aleks Nikolov by far the best scorer so far

Bulgaria’s rise to the last four of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines has to a great extent been fueled by the offensive power of 21-year-old outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov, who has emerged as by far the best scorer and the best attacker of the tournament so far. Slovenia’s Jan Kozamernik, USA’s Gabriel Garcia, Iran’s Arshia Behnezhad, Belgium’s Gorik Lantsoght and Finland’s Luka Marttila are the other individual statistical leaders after the quarterfinal round of the competition.

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Aleks Nikolov leads the best scorers individual ranking with a total of 119 points over the five matches played – 28 against Germany, 26 against Slovenia, 17 against Chile, 19 against Portugal and 29 against the United States. The previous scoring leader until before the quarterfinals, Belgian opposite Ferre Reggers is now 13 points behind, with 106, and no longer in contention. Iranian opposite Ali Hajipour is third with 95. Their Czech counterpart Patrik Indra is in fourth place with 85 points and Nikolov’s closest contender, who is still in the tournament with two more matches to play.

Nikolov is also a convincing leader of the best attackers ranking, with 106 spike kills, followed by Reggers with 93 and Hajipour with 80. Indra comes next with 75 attacking points.

Experienced Slovenian middle blocker Jan Kozamernik has emerged on top of the best blockers ranking with 15 kill blocks to his name. The top three is completed by Bulgaria’s middle and captain Aleks Grozdanov and Finland’s 22-year-old middle Petteri Tyynismaa with 13 stuffs apiece.

American opposite Gabi Garcia headed the best servers chart. He has 17 aces under his belt, seven of which he produced in the eighthfinal game against Slovenia. Turkish outside Efe Mandiraci and Dutch opposite Michiel Ahyi share the second place with 13 aces each. Among the servers still in contention, Bulgarian setter Simeon Nikolov and Italian outside Alessandro Michieletto are in the best position with 10 aces apiece.

Iran’s 22-year-old Arshia Behnezhad is by far the leading playmaker of the tournament so far. He heads the best setters ranking with as many as 222 successful sets. USA’s Micah Christenson is next with 191, while Bulgaria’s rising star Moni Nikolov and Argentinean wizard Luciano De Cecco share the third place with 161 apiece.

19-year-old Belgian libero Gorik Lantsoght is still on top of the best diggers chart. He accounted for 43 digs in five matches played, one more than the second best defender, his Turkish counterpart Berkay Bayraktar. Two Americans, Gabi Garcia and outside Jordan Ewert, French libero Jenia Grebennikov and Czech libero Milan Monik jointly occupy the third place with 32 digs each. Monik is the only one among these five, who has two more games to play this weekend and an opportunity to add to his result.

22-year-old outside Luka Marttila of Finland still stands on top of the best receivers ranking with 37 successful receptions, three more than second-placed Argentinean outside Luciano Palonsky, and four more than third-placed Iranian outside and captain Morteza Sharifi. Italian outside Mattia Bottolo, who is running fifth in this chart with 28 successful receptions, is the highest ranked receiver among the semifinalists.

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship: full schedule and results

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