Crucial Fornal aims to see first CEV Champions League | Men trophy delivered to Jastrzębski

Last season, Jastrzębski Węgiel reached the semi-finals of the CEV Champions League | Men, on the back of an eight-game winning streak. They eventually fell short after two losses against rivals ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, but outside spiker Tomasz Fornal was the best player of the side, announcing himself once again on the biggest of stages.

Fornal’s excellent form was no accident, as he extended that run into the new season, where he was virtually unstoppable at times for Jastrzębski, a team which won nine of the ten matches they played so far in the CEV Champions League | Men, reaching their first-ever SuperFinals, with their first-ever chance to fight for the trophy in the European premium competition.

The 25-year-old outside spiker is just entering his prime, but has already a star-studded career, winning silverware in the domestic competitions with Jastrzębski, a team he has been playing for since 2019, being the key cog added to an already excellent squad, which took the Polish side to the next step.

Now, after a superb season in the CEV Champions League | Men, Fornal is ready to deliver another trophy to his already growing cabinet, being the key player in Jastrzębski’s challenge, which saw the Polish powerhouse deliver a nine-game winning streak, only losing once during their way to Turin, in the second leg of the semi-final against Halkbank Ankara.

Fornal was the star of the show in both legs against the Turkish powerhouse, being the top scorer for Jastrzębski in both matches, with 18 points scored in the first leg and 19 in the second leg, basically lifting his side to clinch the SuperFinals tickets.

Only Stephen Boyer has more points for Jastrzębski this season, 141, than Fornal, which featured in 32 sets over 10 matches and scored 134 points, an average of 4.19 points per game, which puts him 12th in the competition so far, before the SuperFinals.

But the intangibles and the leadership are what make Fornal, who has volleyball running through his veins, as both his father and his brother played the game, a true asset for Jastrzębski.

There is no coincidence that the Polish side stepped up their game as soon as the 25-year-old outside spiker, as Fornal is also one of the top blockers this season, ranking seventh in the standings, with 17 blocks, nearly as many as the next two Jastrzębski players made together.

If the Polish side win the trophy for the first time in their history, it will be also thanks to Fornal, who had two outstanding performances in the final of the Polish Plus Liga, against their opponents in the SuperFinal, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle. Three weeks before the SuperFinals in Turin, Fornal scored 30 points in those two meetings, underlining for penchant for delivering in high stakes matches.