A new role, the same passion: Nadiia Kodola returns to EuroVolley with Ukraine
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Nadiia Kodola is back at CEV Trendyol EuroVolley 2026 Women - but this time, she is not wearing a match jersey. The former Ukraine captain and five-time EuroVolley participant has returned to the European Championship in a completely new role, taking up the position of team manager at the start of the 2026 season. After years of leading her country on the court, the 37-year-old is now contributing to the team she loves from the other side of the sideline.
Until this year’s tournament, Nadiia Kodola was the only Ukrainian player to have appeared at five editions of EuroVolley, representing her country in 2011, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Her former teammate Svitlana Dorsman has now joined her in that record, but Kodola’s connection with the national team has continued - only now in a very different capacity. Her final appearance as a player came at EuroVolley 2023, followed shortly afterwards by the Olympic qualifier in China. At the time, she did not make a formal announcement about her retirement. Instead, she stepped away to give herself time to understand what she wanted next.
“I participated at EuroVolley 2023 and then at the Olympic qualifier in China, which was held in September. I didn’t make any announcement that I was retiring because I really wasn’t sure. But at that moment, it was enough for me. I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I needed time to understand what exactly I could do - whether I needed to come back to Volleyball and play, just rest, or do something new. These two years passed very quickly. I became pregnant and became a mother, but somehow I started to miss Volleyball,” she said. “I asked our president, Mykhailo Melnyk, who also discovered me as Volleyball player when I was a kid and convinced my parents to let me start training, if it was possible to work in some role with the national team. I felt that I had experience from Volleyball and knew the national team very well. I had been the captain for many years. And it worked. I got this chance, for which I’m extremely grateful, especially to our president who trusted me. I’m happy to be part of the national team again because, for me, it’s something big in my life.”
The transition from player to staff member has so far been successful, but Kodola knows from her own experience that leaving the court can be one of the biggest challenges of a Volleyball career.
“I have a lot of friends who stopped playing Volleyball, but after a few years they started to get bored and came back to Volleyball, either continuing to play or getting involved in another role. Retiring from sport is hard because we have a kind of crazy life. We are always moving, changing clubs, travelling and so on, so it’s difficult to change that when you are not ready. You need to be mentally prepared to make such a big change in your life. You also need to be ready to learn new things. During our long sporting careers, we do what we know how to do, and it’s easier for us as players to handle life year by year because we do the same job, in the same or a different club. When you stop playing Volleyball, you need to think about another life. Some people become very stressed because they feel lost in a new reality and don’t know what to do or how to start. They ask themselves: what will this other life be like?”
Nadiia Kodola“It’s important to prepare for the moment when your Volleyball career ends and understand what you can do afterwards, who you can become - whether you want to stay in sport in a different role or start a completely new life. You have to build from zero, let’s say. So it’s good to think about what you will do when you stop while you are still playing.”
Her first season as team manager could hardly have been more eventful. Ukraine made their historic debut in the Volleyball Nations League, meaning a demanding schedule and extensive travel - something Kodola experienced from an entirely different perspective, while also balancing life as a mother.
“It has been my first experience, but it was easier because my family supports me a lot and they helped me make it all happen. It’s definitely a very special season for me because it’s my first such experience, so I will never forget it. At the beginning I was really stressed. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it as a person, but step by step I built my confidence and found myself in this role. I quickly stepped into this role after all those years with the national team, but it also feels very different from this perspective. As players, we just receive the schedule and show up. Now, when you have to create the whole schedule and handle all the work around it, you realise how big it all is.”
Despite the many competitions and countless matches of her playing career, Nadiia Kodola does not point to one particular game or tournament when asked about her most special memory. Instead, she goes back to what made the national team experience so meaningful in the first place.
“I have a lot of memories because every year I had a different club, different coaches and everything. But my most special memories are from the national team. The national team season was always very nice. It was great to meet my teammates after a year in different clubs and be together again, be a team. My teammates were - and still are - close friends. The time with them is my best memory from my playing career.”
Although Nadiia Kodola is now finding her feet as a team manager, her connection with volleyball is clearly not going to end there. She has already completed a coaching course and is considering another role that would allow her to share the knowledge accumulated during her long career.
Nadiia Kodola“I might want to try, because if I don’t try, I will never know how it would be. My life philosophy is: ‘Try, and then you will understand what exactly you need.’ For the moment, I’m working towards becoming a coach one day, maybe not a head coach but an assistant, because I think players with experience from the court have a lot of knowledge to share with the people they work with. I worked with many coaches and different staff members in different countries, and I learned a lot. I learned things that work, but also things that could work better. Of course, I would like to share that with the next generations of players. I want to try all the possibilities to stay close to volleyball, to stay close to the court.”
And while her role has changed, Kodola believes her years as a player will remain an important part of whatever comes next. “For me, it’s important to remember who I was as a player and who I am as a person, and not to forget about humanity first, because we are all people, human beings. I had many different coaches over the years who made me realise what I like and what I don’t like in a coaching approach, and what I would like - or would not like - to use once I start working with other players.”
Now, at her sixth EuroVolley, Nadiia Kodola is helping Ukraine from a different position, carrying with her the experience of more than a decade on the international stage and a desire to remain close to the game she never truly left.
