Brno, Czech Republic, August 31, 2014. Born on June 10, 1998, Tudor Magdas is the youngest player participating in the Final Round of the 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The 16-year-old middle blocker is defending the colors of Romania in Preliminary Pool II taking place in Brno.
“I am feeling great here,” Magdas says. “I know that I am very young, but I am proud to be Romanian and proud to represent my country at this European Championship.”
Tudor went into volleyball about ten years ago in the town of Zalau. He did not have any volleyball background in the family or anyone to push him into this sport. He opted for it simply because he liked it. “Volleyball is my passion,” the 200-cm-tall Romanian shares. “I chose to play it, because it is a team sport and it is the nicest sport.”
Despite being so young, Tudor Magdas has already played for three clubs in his volleyball career. After ZALAU, he moved to Unirea DEJ and now he is part of CSS 2 BAIA MARE’s roster. Earlier this year, he and his club teammates claimed the silver medals from Romania’s youth volleyball championship. Tudor is also a member of two Romanian national teams. With the U18 selection, he triumphed with the title from the 2014 BVA Youth Balkan Championship last month and now he is in Brno with the U20 squad.
Tudor did not get to play in Romania’s first match in which his team upset the home side of the Czech Republic by 3:2. Their second match in Brno, against Turkey, did not go that well, but the youngest player of the tournament got his chance to shine and so he did. He entered as a substitution in the second set and stayed on among the main seven for the third. Upon his entrance, the Romanian team did start to look a lot better on the court, but fell short of winning any sets. Tudor showed an outstanding performance, registering 80% success rate in his attacks through the middle.
“On one hand, I am happy that I played well and I helped my team, but on the other, I am sad because we lost,” commented Tudor Magdas after the match.
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