Yuji Nishida | The Most Dangerous Volleyball Player in the World !!! Yuji Nishida (西田 有志, Nishida Yūji, born 30 January 2000) is a Japanese volleyball player. Currently, he plays for JTEKT Stings in V.League Division 1.
Nishida made his debut with JTEKT Stings at V.League on 6 January 2018 in a match against Osaka Blazers Sakai. His impressive debut at the young age of 17 soon earned him a position in JTEKT's Starting 6, as well as Japan men's national volleyball team. Nishida also led the team finishing 7th place after 29 years, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Nishida is one of the youngest players in the 2018 roster of the Japan men's national volleyball team and FIVB cup Final. He made his first international performance with the Japanese national team in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League. In June 2018, he played a pivotal role in securing Japan's first win in 11 years against Italy where he collected 24 points from 21 spikes and 3 aces. In September 2018, in a match against Argentina in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, Nishida became the youngest player ever to score 30 points in a match.[6] In June 2019, Nishida broke serving records in the VNL history after hitting 7 aces in a single game during a match against Canada.
Nishida transferred to play for Volley Callipo in the Italian Volleyball League for the 2021-22 season. He received MVP of the match awards thrice in spite of an injury and subsequent 2-month recovery. Nishida would become the highest scorer of his team, with a personal one-match record of 29 points, and held the record for the most aces in one match during the league's first round of the 2021/22 season with 8 aces.
On June 1, JTEKT Stings announced that Nishida would join the club again for Season 2022-23.
At the Nations League, Nishida scored the highest of the Japanese team and the third of the league's first round with 201 points, including 162 attacks, 10 blocks and 29 aces. He delivered 28 points for winning Italy with the full-set match on June 24, 2022.[44][45] At the end of the preliminary round, Japan advanced to the quarterfinals after placed 5th. Then, Japanese team was scheduled to face with France which they lost with 3-0 set, making Japanese team ended at 5th place in the final standing.[46]
On August 26, Japanese team first played in 2022 World Championship against Qatar which the team won in a straight set. Nishida contributed for 17 points, including 4 blocks. In the next two games, Japanese team faced with Brazil and Cuba that they lost and won, respectively.[47] Resulting the Japan advanced to the final round since many years. They have managed to fought against France, the 2020 Olympic and the Nations League gold medalists. In the game, Nishida scored total 31 points, which the most in the game. They played in the full set but Nishida's team was lost, making them finished at the 12th place.[48][49]
He was away from court for three weeks after V.League just started two weeks. He had high fever that never went away. He didn't know what caused the situation after making medical checks. He was treated as infected with incurable diseases. Nishida started to think about whether he would be able to play volleyball anymore. Luckily, all the symptoms just disappeared and Nishida was told he was free to play volleyball again. He was able to lead his team to win the title of 2022 Emperor's Cup.
2019-20 V.League 1 - Best Opposite Spiker
2019-20 V.League 1 - Best 6
2020-21 the Japanese Emperor's Cup - Most Valuable Player [60]
2020-21 V.League 1 - Best Server[61]
2020-21 V.League 1 - V.League Japan record award player, highest score from Japanese player in the history (with 833 points)[62][63]
Club teams
2019-20 V.League 1 - Simple cup icon.svg Champion, with JTEKT Stings[64]
2020-21 the Japanese Emperor's Cup - Simple cup icon.svg Champion, with JTEKT Stings[65][66][67]
2022 Emperor's Cup - Simple cup icon.svg Champion, with JTEKT Stings
Junior national team
2017 Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship - Gold medal with cup.svg Gold medal in Myanmar
National team
2019 Asian Men's Volleyball Championship - Bronze medal with cup.svg Bronze medal in Iran
Personal information
Full name Yuji Nishida
Nationality Japanese
Born 30 January 2000 (age 22)
Mie, Japan
Hometown Inabe
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)[1]
Weight 89 kg (196 lb)
Spike 350 cm (138 in)[2]
Block 335 cm (132 in)
Volleyball information
Position Opposite Spiker
Current club Japan JTEKT Stings
Number 1 (national team)
14 (club)
Career
Years Teams
2017-2021 Japan JTEKT Stings
2021-2022 Italy Volley Callipo
2022-present Japan JTEKT Stings
National team
2017
2018-present Japan U-19 national team
Japan senior national team
Medal record
Men's volleyball
Representing Japan