It is no secret that Wilfredo Leon, born in 1993, comes from Cuba. As a child, he linked his fate with volleyball, and at the age of 12, he began studying at the National Cuban Volleyball School, where he studied to be a physical education teacher. However, his parents initially had reason to worry, because Wilfredo was premature.
“He was born tiny. (…) He weighed a little over two kilograms and could fit in a size seven shoe box. Who would have thought then that one day he would be two meters tall and become a world-class volleyball player?” — recall Alina Venero Boza and Wilfredo Leon Hechavarria.
Wilfredo Leon – the beginnings of a famous volleyball player
When it comes to Wilfredo’s childhood and development, you have to remember how specific a country Cuba is“When the Soviet Union fell, an economic crisis raged in our country. Without the food and fuel that the Soviets provided, it was very, very bad. Everything was missing — food, clothes, shoes, cleaning products… Diseases were spreading” — this is how Wilfred’s parents described this extremely difficult period, when even getting regular diapers was a challengelet alone washing them due to lack of water supply.
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Mother and father quickly realized that Wilfredo it’s growing like a weedhe quickly grew taller than the neighborhood kids, had long arms and legs, and turned out to be very agile. This pleased his parents, who were themselves involved in sports. Alina played volleyball in her youth.won the silver medal at the Cuban Championships as a junior. Wilfredo senior he was a youth champion three times Cuban wrestling championlater worked as a coach of this sport.
The choice of volleyball was a coincidence meeting with Alina’s former coachwho immediately noticed that the six-year-old was very tall for his age and invited him to classes. The father wondered whether to send his son to the wrestling mat, but decided that Wilfredo’s arms and legs were too long for that. The future sports star liked volleyball very much anyway, and it soon turned out that the boy has a lot of internal discipline, conscientiousness and commitment.
Career is developing
As a young boy, Wilfredo joined the Capitalinos club in Havana, which he represented for five years. When he was only 13, he was called up to the squad for the Junior World Championships. Leon He made his debut for the senior Cuban national team on May 24, 2008, during the World League, when he was just 15 years old. A few months later, he became the team captain. At the age of 17, he began playing for Orientales de Santiago in his hometown. After winning a bronze medal in the 2012 World League,
Then he faced the opportunity to develop an international career and left his native island. He played for Zenit Kazan, where he quickly became a key player, leading the team to four Champions League titles (2015-2018) and to winning medals at the Club World Championship and the Russian Cup. After the 2017/2018 season, he moved to Sir Safety Perugia.
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In love with Poland and Poland
During the 2011 World League Finals at Ergo Arena in Gdańsk, Leon met his future wife. The couple knew each other before, because Małgorzata, working as a journalist, wanted to interview Leon. Their acquaintance turned into love. They got married in 2016.and in May of the following year their daughter Natalia was born. Two years later their son Cristian was born.
Leon, since moving to Poland, he knew he wanted to represent his wife’s country. Despite offers from other countries, he decided on Poland. In 2013, he joined the sports agency of Andrzej Grzyb, who became his manager. Two years later he took Polish citizenshipand in 2019, after a four-year grace period and seven years since his last appearance for the Cuban national team, he made his debut for Poland. It happened on July 27, 2019, during a friendly match against the Netherlands, won 4-0.
Source: sportowefakty.wp.pl/sport.tvp.pl
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