The transition of the talented volleyball player Ekaterina Antropova this summer to the camp of the Italian national team made a lot of noise. Less than a month later, the 20-year-old athlete began to demonstrate great performance as part of a new team at the European Championships. For the sake of a Russian girl, even the main legend of Italy was seated on a bench.

“It was not a loss for us”

Ekaterina was born into an athletic Antropov family. Her father played basketball and her mother played handball. The girl took her first steps in volleyball in Russia, but in 2018 she moved to Italy, where she began her professional career as part of the Sassuolo Academy.

For the last two seasons, Ekaterina has been playing in the strong Italian team Savino Del Bene, with whom she won bronze medals in the local championship. During the years spent on the Apennine Peninsula, Antropova mastered the local language well and completely assimilated.

In the summer, the athlete was even granted Italian citizenship for special merits. The head of the National Olympic Committee of Italy, Giovanni Malago, lobbied about this.

“It is proposed to activate the procedure for granting citizenship for special merits and excellent sports results in their discipline,” the official website of the Italian government reports.

The accelerated procedure for issuing citizenship allowed Ekaterina to enter the European Championship, which started on August 15. Russian volleyball leaders were not very upset about the departure of a talented athlete.

– It was not a loss for us, because there was no acquisition as such. De facto, she began to play volleyball in Italy. She only once trained with us on the youth team. Considering all this, and also that her family had no desire and they did not even consider the option with Russia, I repeat, there is no surprise. And in general, ten years ago we wrote a paper that we do not claim her sports citizenship, ”Match TV quotes the words of the Secretary General of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation (VVF) Alexander Yaremenko.

Ekaterina Antropova / Photo: © NurPhoto / Contributor / NurPhoto / Gettyimages.ru

“We showed the audience the show”

The first match of the European Championship was held at the ancient site of the Arena di Verona. The building, which is almost two thousand years old, is still functioning and used for public events. About ten thousand people gathered for the opening match of the tournament between Italy and Romania.

The surprise was that the coaching staff of the Italians released Antropova on the court from the very first draw. At the same time, Ekaterina took an unusual position as an after-player. But the legendary MVP of many prestigious tournaments and two-time world championship winner Paola Egonu remained on the bench.

In the new place, the debutant of the national team did not lose her head and showed the best performance in both teams. Antropova has 13 points. Her contribution helped the Italians defeat their rivals in three games – 25:19, 25:19, 25:15.

An unforgettable experience that we will all keep in our hearts. For me, this game was special because it was my debut. I hope I showed what I can do. The trust of the coach is important, but the trust of the whole team is also important. We showed the audience the show, — quotes the words of the athlete Sky Sports.

Some fans after the match were literally in ecstasy from the game of the Russians. Even comments appeared on social networks with declarations of love to Antropova.

“Ekaterina Antropova, I love you,” writes ffforeverrainn.

— Thank God and Ekaterina Antropova. Let’s celebrate the victory at the European Championship! H3ROGR4Y rejoices.

– Simply the best. She is a very team player, the main thing for her is to help her partners, – notes burakkcrr7.

– She shows just a crazy game for her age, – says S.

Since the meeting was the only one on the starting day, Ekaterina also retained the title of the most productive volleyball player of the European Championship for at least one day. However, Antropova has a long tournament ahead of her, and with such a game she will prove herself more than once in the Italian team.

Live broadcasts of matches of the European Volleyball Championship are held on the federal channel “Match TV” and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.