Pieter Coolman and his "last dance" with Belgium
Feature
The 36-year-old middle blocker of Belgium ended his club career in May (he was playing for Roeselare, in Belgium). And after the CEV Enel EuroVolley Men 2026 he will also stop his long journey in the Volleyball world with the National Team, aka the Red Dragons.
When Pieter Coolman reflected on the decision to end his professional Volleyball career, he had no regrets: “I know it’s my last time at EuroVolley, so I am enjoying every little moment. Some of my teammates still don’t believe it is confirmed 100%, but I am sure. I figured it out when I started to have injuries in the last years so I understood it’s time to stop. I know that if I wanted, I could play another couple of years more, but my body told me to stop here.” At 36, with a wife and a young kid (Cyriel, who is 5 years old) Coolman will start a new chapter of his life outside the court.
“I want to play with my kid in the garden, I want to go skiing, enjoy the weekend, something that I couldn’t do for so many years. Then maybe in two-three years I will come back as a coach, I have already had offers in Belgium but now it’s too early, I want to miss Volleyball before coming back”.
Looking back at those years, the middle blocker reflects he was lucky, not just because he had not any major injuries, but because “I found in the National Team my best friends: I enjoyed it so much to come to practice, because then we can enjoy a coffee together, having a chat…of course it’s still a job and you have days you don’t want to go to the training, but if you see it as a job, it’s a way more better then to stay all day sitting at the office.” The hardest moment for Coolman, apart from telling it to the teammates about his decision, is to inform his son, who is “the biggest volleyball fan in the world,” he states.
“He was the only one really upset when I shared the news. He spends hours watching Volleyball, and not just my matches, but also from other countries. He knows all the players of the teams and his hero is Alessandro Micheletto from Italy: he can’t wait to see him playing live.”
Who knows if it’s going to happen soon, if Belgium will go on with the tournament and will have to face Italy: “I know we can beat most of the teams at this EuroVolley, but at the the same time I know we can lose from a lot of teams: now the gap among teams is getting ticker and ticker, so you need a special moment, a special action to win a match. Of course, if I have to dream about the end of my career, I’d like to be in Milan for the finals, but now I think we have to focus on where we can grow more in our play.”
Speaking about growing, the middle blocker sees a bright future for his National Team: “Martijn Colson, who is 32, and Samuel Fafchamps, 25, they are my heirs in the position. In general I think we will have a steady team with Sam Deroo and Ferre Roggers, and a young talented libero - so I think in the next champs we will be a strong competitor.”