Russia’s All Star Teams Announced!

Exciting! This is like the “Oscars” or the “Grammys” of the Russian League! Russian fans were given the chance to vote for the players they’d want to see & the players they don’t want to play.  We love the All Star cast but we’re also a bit shocked that there are some famous stars that will miss the annual event. No reasons for their absence were disclosed so we’re a bit sad. Maybe these players are injured? aging? busy? We can only speculate.

Anyways, the stars missing the event will be Daddy Lloy Ball, David Lee aka D-LEEcious, Libero Alexei Verbov and Russian veteran Sergey Tetyukhin. Since they’re not playing, we still hope to see them on the sideline watching the game. Their presence will add more star power…correct?

The All Star Tournament will be held on January 21st & 22nd, 2011 and the host city will be Kemerovo.

Kemerovo? Where’s that?

Anyways, ladies and gentlemen please welcome the Russian All Star Teams!

Team West

Vadim Khamutskikh (Russia, Yaroslavich YAROSLAVL) – setter
Sergey Grankin (Russia, Dinamo MOSCOW) – setter
Taras Khtey (Russia, Lokomotiv BELGOROD) – outside hitter
Maxim Panteleymonenko (Russia, Zenit KAZAN) – outside hitter
William Reid Priddy (USA, Zenit KAZAN) – outside hitter
Peter Veres (Hungary, Dinamo MOSCOW) – outside hitter
Guillaume Samica (France, Iskra ODINTSOVO) – outside hitter

Maxim Mikhailov (Russia, Zenit KAZAN) – opposite
Semen Poltavsky (Russia, Yaroslavich YAROSLAVL) – opposite
Jochen Schöps (Germany, Iskra ODINTSOVO) – opposite
Roman Yakovlev (Russia, Dinamo MOSCOW) – opposite
Dmitriy Muserskiy (Russia, Lokomotiv BELGOROD) – middle blocker
Alexey Kazakov (Russia, Dinamo MOSCOW) – middle blocker
Alexey Kuleshov (Russia, Iskra ODINTSOVO) – middle blocker
Nikolay Apalikov (Russia, Zenit KAZAN) – middle blocker
Alexander Yanutov (Russia, Dinamo KRASNODAR) – libero

Team East

Alexander Butko (Russia, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – setter
Kevin Hansen (USA, Fakel NOVY URENGOY) – setter
Igor Shulepov (Russia, Gazprom-Ugra SURGUT) – outside hitter
Nikolay Leonenko (Russia, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – outside hitter
Björn Andrae (Germany, Kuzbass KEMEROVO) – outside hitter
Robert Kromm (Germany, Ural UFA) – outside hitter
Alexander Gerasimov (Russia, Lokomotiv EKATERINBURG) – opposite
Nikolay Pavlov (Russia, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – opposite
Clayton Stanley (USA, Ural UFA) – opposite

Łukasz Kadziewicz (Poland, Gazprom-Ugra SURGUT) – middle blocker
Andrey Ashev (Russia, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – middle blocker
Matias Raymaekers (Belgium, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – middle blocker
Hristo Tsvetanov (Bulgaria, Lokomotiv EKATERINBURG) – middle blocker
Konstantin Poroshin (Russia, Kuzbass KEMEROVO) – middle blocker
Valery Komarov (Russia, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK) – libero
Alexander Sokolov (Russia, Fakel NOVY URENGOY) – libero

*The players in BOLD are our favorite STARS! Since Team West has the most of our favorite stars, Team WEST will WIN!

To KNOW more about this star studded gathering of the elite players in the Russian League, click THIS.

Are you TEAM WEST or TEAM EAST?

(images: volley.ru & lozano-i-siatkarze.blog.onet.pl)