Bulgaria’s rising star Aleksandar Nikolov extended his contract with Italy’s Cucine Lube Civitanova for another four seasons and is set to compete for the club at least until 2028.
Superlega 2023
Nikolov and Lube shake hands for another four years
The rising Bulgarian star dreams of a title with the White-and-Reds
Published 06:00, 18 Feb 2024
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The 20-year-old outside hitter is already into his second season as a Lube player. In his first season, the team earned a SuperLega Credem Banca silver and reached the Supercoppa Italiana final. This season, the 2.07m-tall talent and his teammates reached the Italian super cup final again, stopping just short of claiming the trophy in a nail-biting five-setter against reigning club world champions Sir Susa Vim Perugia. Lube are currently running fourth in the SuperLega regular season standings and have already reached the quarterfinals of the CEV Champions League. Nikolov earned the MVP recognition in many of Lube’s successful games. He was also named SuperLega Player of the Month in December.
Young Aleks started his club career at Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia. To join Lube, he interrupted his full scholarship college education at Long Beach State University in the United States after a brilliant first season in the NCAA, when he was named 2022 National Player of the Year as the first-ever freshman to win the award, and took silver with the Long Beach squad.
Early into his volleyball career, Aleks was better known as the son of legendary Bulgarian opposite Vladimir Nikolov, but he quickly managed to create his own stellar status in the volleyball world. Nikolov first shined in the Bulgarian colours at various age-category competitions. He was the leader of an extraordinary generation of young Bulgarian players that collected several medals at various youth and junior world and European championships, himself finishing on top of various individual charts for best scorers, best attackers or best servers and picking up a couple of Dream Team awards. Nikolov made his official debut with the senior men’s national team in 2021 and has already established himself as one of the key players on the squad.
“I am very happy and I thankful to Lube for this new opportunity,” Nikolov told lubevolley.it. “I would like to underline my gratitude to those who helped me get this far. The Italian adventure has enhanced my experience and my growth as a player and as a person, and I will continue to work on myself technically and mentally. Perhaps it is obvious, but if I decided to join the club, it is also because I found a hospitable environment here and I consider Civitanova my home. Our fans are close to the team and help us overcome the difficulties. I want to continue playing with their encouragement and make them happy. I dream of winning a title in the white-and-red jersey!”
SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 today's schedule:
Feb 18, 16:00 local (15:00 UTC): Pallavolo Padova Padua v Sir Susa Vim Perugia
Feb 18, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v Valsa Group Modena
Feb 18, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Cucine Lube Civitanova v Cisterna Volley
Feb 18, 19:00 local (18:00 UTC): Allianz Milan v Rana Verona
