Finnish volleyball player and coachVolleyball informationPositionOutside hitterCareerNational team Honours

Tuomas Petteri Sammelvuo (born 16 February 1976) is a Finnish volleyball coach and former volleyball player. At the professional club level, he is a two–time French Champion (1999, 2004).

Sammelvuo is still the only Finnish male volleyball player to win the Champions League (2005). Having played 296 games in the national team, he has the second largest number of games in the Finnish volleyball history.

Contents

• 1 Personal life
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Early career
  • 2.2 Finland league
  • 2.3 Professional career
• 3 National team
• 4 Sporting achievements
  • 4.1 As a player
  • 4.2 As a coach
  • 4.3 Individual awards
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Personal life

Sammelvuo has two brothers and a sister. He speaks six languages: Finnish, French, English, Italian, Polish and Russian, is married to Petra and has two children.

Career

Early career

Sammelvuo started his volleyball career in Pudasjärvi, northern Finland. When he turned 16, he moved to Tampere. Sammelvuo played in Finnish youth national team, which reached fourth place at the 1995 Junior World Championship.

Finland league

Sammelvuo started his professional career at the age of sixteen, in Raision Loimu. In the 1993–94 season, he played in Loimu and won the Finnish championship bronze medal. After that, he moved to KuPS, and won two Finnish Champion *les and one silver medal. In his last season in Finland, he was chosen the best championship player.

Professional career

From KuPS, Sammelvuo moved to the French team, Strasbourg. Sammelvuo spent there one year, and then moved to Poitiers. In 2000, he signed a contract in Italy, and started playing in Cuneo. Sammelvuo played for them for two seasons before moving to Piacenza. In Piacenza, he won the Italian Cup. In 2003, he returned to France and joined Tours VB.

First season in Tours was a success to Sammelvuo. He win France championleague gold and also bronze in the European Champions league. Second season in Tours was also a success to Sammelvuo when he won the European Champions league. He was the first player ever from Finland who won the Champions league. Same season Sammelvuo won also France league bronze medal.

After two Tours years Sammelvuo moved to *an and started playing Toyota Gosei team. He was the first Finnish player in *an ever. In *an season he was chosen to the All-Stars team in the league.

After *an year Sammelvuo wanted to come back to Finland. He signed a three-year contract with Pielaveden Sampo. But soon from Russian Superleague came a call and Sammelvuo started to play in Dynamo Kaliningrad. In Dynamo Kaliningrad Sammelvuo played his best season ever. Players chose him the third best player in league season 2006–2007. Season 2008 Sammelvuo continued in Russian Superleague and media chose him to All-Stars game against Russian men's national team.

Season 2008–2009 Sammelvuo played in Italy A1-league in Vibo Valentia. Season 2009–2010 Sammelvuo played in Poland PlusLiga in ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle. Season 2010–2011 Sammelvuo played in Lokomotiv Novosibirsk, to where he came back for the season 2012–13 after he played one season in Italy. His career ended in season 2012–13. Sammelvuo was elected to Finnish men's volleyball team head coach in January 2013. As a sum he decided to retire and started centralize his thoughts to national team almost half year before volleyball summer.

National team

He was appointed captain of the Finland men's national volleyball team in 1997. At the 2007 European Championship held in Russia, Finland came in fourth place and made Finland ball games history. Overall, Sammelvuo played 296 games in the national team.

Sporting achievements

As a player

• CEV Champions League
  • 2004/2005 – with Tours VB
• CEV Challenge Cup
  • 2001/2002 – with Noicom Cuneo
• National championships
  • 1994/1995 Finnish Cup, with KuPS Kuopio
  • 1994/1995 Finnish Championship, with KuPS Kuopio
  • 1995/1996 Finnish Cup, with KuPS Kuopio
  • 1995/1996 Finnish Championship, with KuPS Kuopio
  • 1998/1999 French Championship, with Stade Poitevin Poitiers
  • 2001/2002 Italian Cup, with Noicom Brebanca Cuneo
  • 2003/2004 French Championship, with Tours VB
  • 2004/2005 French Cup, with Tours VB
  • 2010/2011 Russian Cup, with Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

As a coach

• National championships
  • 2018/2019 Russian Championship, with Kuzb* Kemerovo

Individual awards

• 2014: Coach of the Year in Finland

References

External links

• Player profile at the European Volleyball Confederation
• Player profile at LegaVolley.it (in Italian)
• Player profile at PlusLiga.pl (in Polish)
• Coach profile at the European Volleyball Confederation
• Coach profile at Olympedia
• Coach/Player Profile at Volleybox.net