In the absence of injured Bartosz Kurek and Aleksander Sliwka, 28-year-old Jakub Kochanowski took on the responsibility to captain Poland and led them to the VNL 2025 crown, himself landing a spot on the VNL Dream Team for the third consecutive time, after 2023 and 2024. This time, however, the talented middle blocker also earned the MVP honors.
Kochanowski appeared only in the last seven games of the squad on the way to the crown and, in addition to his charisma, he chipped in with 55 points, including 14 kill blocks and 5 aces. In offense, Kuba registered an impressive average success rate of 69% across the competition. He was one of the key players in Poland’s emphatic shutout of Italy in Sunday’s gold medal showdown, in which he shined with a 71% success rate in attack and two kill blocks towards a total of seven points.
“We went from victory to victory, and with such style that in each match we played better and better,” Jakub Kochanowski commented for Polsat Sport after Sunday’s final. “Lifting the trophy as a substitute captain feels fantastic, because this team deserves it so much. With the way we built ourselves from the match against France in Gdansk to these Finals here, getting better and better with each game, we grew in confidence. And today we played so brilliantly that no one in previous editions deserved this trophy as much as we did in this one.”