Wilfredo León

Wilfredo León
Personal information
Full name	Wilfredo León Venero
Nickname	Leo
Nationality	Cuban Polish
Born	(1993-07-31) July 31, 1993 Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Height	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Spike	385 cm (152 in)
Block	346 cm (136 in)
Volleyball information
Position	Outside Spiker
Current club	Sir Sicoma Conad Perugia
Number	9
Career
Years Teams 2005–2010 Capitalinos 2010–2013 Orientales de Santiago 2014–2018 Zenit Kazan 2018– Sir Sicoma Conad Perugia
National team
2007–2012 Cuba 2019- Poland
Honours Representing  Cuba Men's volleyball World Championship 2010 Italy NORCECA Championships 2009 Puerto Rico 2011 Puerto Rico Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara World Grand Champions Cup 2009 Japan World League 2012 Sofia
Last updated: December 2017

Wilfredo León Venero (born 31 July 1993) is a Cuban professional volleyball player with Polish citizenship, a member of Cuba men's national volleyball team in 2007–2012 and Russian club Zenit Kazan, silver medalist of the World Championship 2010, NORCECA Champion (2009, 2011), Cuban Champion (2009, 2010, 2011), Russian Champion (2015, 2016, 2017). Considered by many as one of a kind he led Cuba to the silver medal at the world championship 2010 in Italy, alongside Yoandi Leal and Robertlandy Simon considered one of the leaders of the "Generation of Miracle" of Cuba volleyball and by many expert, Leon may be the best player of all time by all the accomplish he has made while being so young, having won every single title at pro level at the age of 24.

Personal life

He was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He is Wilfredo León Hechavarría and Alina Venero Boza (a former volleyball player)'s son. He studied at Escuela Nacional del Voleibol Cubano. León Venero lived in Poland for a while with his Polish girlfriend.^[1] On July 14, 2015 he received Polish citizenship and expressed his desire to play in the Poland men's national volleyball team.^[2] On June 24, 2016 he married Małgorzata (née Gronkowska). On May 13, 2017 their daughter Natalia was born.

Career

He started to play when he was 7. His first coach was his mother Alina. Wilfredo León Venero debuted in the Cuban national team on May 24, 2008 in Düsseldorf, aged 14 years and 10 months.^[3] He won the title of Best Receiver at World League 2009. On July 31, 2009 as the youngest player of tournament, he won a silver medal in the World U21 Championship 2009 (after losing the final against Brazil). In 2009, the Cuban national team, with Leon, won the title of NORCECA Champion (and three individual awards) and repeated this success in 2011. After losing the final against Brazil, Cuba won a silver medal at the World Championship 2010. He was the youngest captain of the national team (he was 17). In 2012, he won bronze medal of World League - Sofia 2012. In 2013, Yoandri Díaz and León fled Cuba to play in a club outside of their homeland.^[4] They lost the possibility of playing for the Cuba national team.^[5] In 2017 León joined the Highest Paid Male Volleyball Players, with salary of $1,900,000.

Sporting achievements

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilfredo León.

Awards
Preceded by Gilberto Godoy Filho	Best Server of FIVB World League 2009	Succeeded by Yoandry Leal
Preceded by Victor Rivera	Best Spiker of NORCECA Championship 2009 2011	Succeeded by Andy Leonardo
Preceded by Lloy Ball	Most Valuable Player of NORCECA Championship 2009	Succeeded by Keibel Gutiérrez
Preceded by José Miguel Cáceres	Best Scorer of NORCECA Championship 2011	Succeeded by Rolando Cepeda
Preceded by Gilberto Godoy Filho	Most Valuable Player of Pan American Games 2011	Succeeded by Facundo Conte
Preceded by -	Best Outside Spiker of CEV Champions League 2014/2015 ex aequo Facundo Conte 2015/2016 ex aequo Tine Urnaut 2016/2017 ex aequo Ivan Zaytsev 2017/2018 ex aequo Osmany Juantorena	Succeeded by TBD
Preceded by Sergey Tetyukhin	Most Valuable Player of CEV Champions League 2014/2015 2015/2016	Succeeded by Maxim Mikhaylov
Preceded by Sergey Tetyukhin Matey Kaziyski	Best Outside Spiker of FIVB Club World Championship 2015 ex aequo Todor Aleksiev 2016 ex aequo Yoandry Leal 2017 ex aequo Yoandry Leal	Succeeded by TBD