Lausanne, Switzerland, August 10, 2020 - The apple didn't fall far from the tree in the case of Jenia Grebennikov, who lifts the legacy of his father to further heights as he continues to keep fans thrilled with the national team of France and in the Italian top flight A1 League, where as of this year he'll be looking at new inroads with his third club in the country.
Born in the French city of Rennes, where his father was player and coach of the local club, Jenia grew up on the volleyball courts and played under the guidance of his dad for the first decade of his career, with Rennes.
Father Boris, born in 1958 in Temirtau (then in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan) had already an illustrious career behind him as player in Almaty's Dorozhnik when he moved abroad in 1989 and set up in Rennes.
Jenia came along the next year and spent his formative years under the watchful eye of his coaching father, originally playing ice hockey and volleyball before settling on the latter and later moving off for grander things (after claiming the first national title of his career when Rennes won the French Cup in 2012).
Jenia's first venture abroad was to Germany, when he joined VfB Friedrichshafen for a couple of seasons from 2013, picking up a national championship title and two cup titles on the way. In 2015 Jenia moved to Italy, joining Cucine Lube Civitanova for a very productive three seasons during which he grabbed a silver medal at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship plus another silver and two bronze medals from the European Champions League. He was named on the Dream Teams as best libero at three consecutive Champions Leagues, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
During this period, Grebennikov was crowned Italian champion in 2017 after having won the Italian Cup with Lube the previous season. In 2018 Jenia moved north to join Diatec Trentino and immediately picked up the most coveted club trophy in the world, after helping his side win the title at the 2018 FIVB Club World Championship where he was named to the Dream Team of the competition.
Moving on from Trentino, the French star is now with Azimut Modena, looking forward to the 2020-21 season and the opportunity to carry on picking up titles and individual awards. All the while, Grebennikov was sweeping up as libero of the French national team ever since his debut in 2011.
Within four years he had already picked up gold medals at the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League and the 2015 European Championship - named best libero in the latter.
To those honours he added a bronze at the 2016 World League and another gold in the same competition the following year. He was a silver medallist in the inaugural FIVB Volleyball Nations League in 2018, once again being named on the Dream Team of the competition.
Look out for video highlights of Jenia Grebennikov's career across the Volleyball World channels this week.