Full name | VakıfBank Spor Kulübü | ||
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Founded | 1986 | ||
Ground |
Vakıfbank Sport Hall, Istanbul (Capacity: 3,000) |
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Chairman | Osman Demren | ||
Manager | Giovanni Guidetti | ||
Captain | Gözde Kırdar | ||
League |
Turkish Women's Volleyball League CEV Champions League |
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Website | Club home page | ||
Uniforms | |||
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Turkish Women's Volleyball League
Vakıfbank İstanbul, currently, one of the best volleyball teams in the world, winner of the 2013 FIVB Women's Club World Championship and the 2012–13 CEV Women's Champions League, is a Turkish volleyball club.
As of January 23, 2014, the team holds a 73-games winning streak record in domestic and international official competitions.
Vakıfbank İstanbul won all 52 official games played during 2012-13 season and all 51 official games played in year 2013.
The team collected five championship trophies in 2013. (Perfect season#Volleyball)
The team was established following a merger between two separate teams: Vakıfbank and Güneş Sigorta. Vakıfbank was originally an Ankara-based team but moved to İstanbul after the merge. Their name changed to Vakıfbank Güneş Sigorta, Vakıfbank Güneş Sigorta Türk Telekom (VGSTT), Vakıfbank Türk Telekom and Vakıfbank respectively.
Vakıfbank won two unbeatenCEV Champions League championships in 2011 and 2013, and is the only unbeaten champions of the Champions League history. They also placed second in 1998 and 1999 in this competition. They won 2013 Club World Championship, CEV Top Teams Cup in 2004 and CEV Challenge Cup in 2008 while finishing 2nd in the FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship in 2011 and 3rd in the European Confederation Cup of 2000.
The team is coached by Italian Giovanni Guidetti. They won 47 games of 47 in the 2012–2013 season in all competitions including Champions League (12 games), Turkish League (29 games) and Turkish Cup (6 games). After this season, they kept most of the team roster and coaching staff for the 2013–2014 season with little changes: Jelena Nikolic, who took a break volleyball for one year, came back to the team and Italian international Carolina Costagrande transfers from Chinese club Guangdong Evergrande V.C. instead of Polish spiker Malgorzata Glinka and Japanese Saori Kimura. Glinka left the team after three great seasons and moved to her home country for familial reasons.