Olympic volleyball champion Alexander Volkov had the prerequisites for coaching, said the head coach of the Kazan volleyball “Zenith” Alexei Verbov.

Last season, 38-year-old Volkov, along with Zenit, won the Russian championship and became a six-time national champion, after which he announced his retirement as a player. In May, Volkov was appointed head coach of Belogorye Belgorod.

– He definitely has leadership qualities, he also understands volleyball better than many athletes with whom I met. He is always not indifferent to the life of the team: to what and how it does. This applies to the training and not only the process. This says a lot – there are prerequisites for coaching. But for starters, of course, this is not enough. There is a player’s authority, there is trust on the part of the club’s management, but it is very important that he turn this authority into a coaching authority as soon as possible. This is not an easy job, because it is not a change of position. And I have experienced it myself. Although I had an easier situation: for several years I combined the position of a player and a coach – I was a playing coach. This gave certain opportunities for understanding what kind of work it is. He joins the team almost immediately. Probably, there will be no task to immediately fight for the first places, as was the case in Kazan, where there is no room for error. Belgorod’s task, as far as I know, is to get into the prizes, into the top 4. They would like to move someone from our four, which in recent years is always and everywhere.

This may make the task easier. But globally it will be very difficult. It will depend on him how quickly it will turn out. Let’s look together with you. I, too, will follow with pleasure and interest. I wish him good luck. I am grateful to Sasha for the help of the captain in the last two years. And I was glad to stand with him on the same platform as a player. He is a legend. This expression is applicable to his career,” Verbov said to the “Championship”.