After years with different teams, Alexander and Slavi Kostadinov will once again be teammates. According to information from "BO Sport", outside hitter Alexander Kostadinov and setter Slavi Kostadinov will play together next season for "Gazprom-Yugra" (Surgut).
This will be the first time the two brothers play in a men's team after their youth team at "Lokomotiv" (Novosibirsk). They have Bulgarian roots – sons of former basketball player Mariyan Kostadinov and Russian volleyball player Marina Letkovskaya, who played for AIS (Shumen).
Their path to Surgut
21-year-old Alexander Kostadinov began his professional career at "Lokomotiv" (Novosibirsk) in the 2022/23 season, and in February this year, he was loaned precisely to Surgut.
23-year-old Slavi Kostadinov has a richer volleyball history – after the "Lokomotiv" youth team, he played for "Dynamo" (Chelyabinsk) (2021/22), "Nova" (2022/23), and "Kuzbass" (2023/24). He started this season with "Zenit" (Saint Petersburg), but after the recovery of the main setters in the team in December, he moved to "Dynamo-Ural".
In "Gazprom-Yugra", Slavi will compete for a starting spot with Maxim Kirillov.
Playoff battles
The brothers will play in Surgut on loan, but their sports rights remain with "Lokomotiv" (Novosibirsk).
In the regular season, "Dynamo-Ural" (Ufa), Slavi's former team, finished seventh and will play playoffs against "Fakel". Surgut finished 11th and will face Dynamo-LO (Sosnovy Bor). "Lokomotiv" (Novosibirsk) qualified directly for the quarterfinals.
The eight teams from 5th to 12th place will play an additional playoff round of two matches with a possible "golden set".
The first matches will take place on March 11, and the return matches – on March 15. The first matches will be played on the home courts of the teams with a lower ranking in the regular championship.
Russian Championship. Playoffs. First Round
March 11, Tuesday
15:00 Kuzbass (Kemerovo) of Asparuh Asparuhov – Yenisei (Krasnoyarsk)
19:00 ASK (Nizhny Novgorod) – Zenit (Saint Petersburg)
19:00 Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut) of the Kostadinov brothers – Dynamo-LO (Sosnovy Bor)
19:00 Fakel-Yamal (Novy Urengoy) – Dynamo-Ural (Ufa)
