Wilfredo Leon Venero (born July 31, 1993) is a Cuban–Polish professional volleyball player who was a member of the Cuban men’s national volleyball team from 2007 to 2012 and is now a member of the Poland men’s national volleyball team and the Italian club Sir Safety Perugia. He won silver at the 2010 World Championship and was a NORCECA Champion (2009, 2011), Cuban Champion (2009, 2010, 2011), and Russian Champion (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018).
Many consider him one of a kind, since he led Cuba to a silver medal at the 2010 World Championships in Italy, alongside Yoandy Leal and Robertlandy Simon, and is regarded as one of the leaders of Cuba’s “Generation of Miracle” by many experts. Wilfredo León is one of the top volleyball players in the world.
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Table of Contents
Career
He began playing when he was seven years old. Alina Venero, his mother, was his first coach. Wilfredo León Venero made his national team debut on May 24, 2008, at Düsseldorf, when he was 14 years and 10 months old. At World League 2009, he was named Best Receiver.
When León first joined Cuba’s youth national team, he said that there were ten players his age who were nearly as excellent as him. Eight of them quit after two years. Yoandy Leal, who plays for Brazil, and Osmany Juantorena and Angel Dennis, who currently represent Italy, are among the Cuban stars who may have made up a truly good Cuban national squad.
He won a silver medal in the World U21 Championship 2009 on July 31, 2009. (after losing the final against Brazil). The Cuban national team won the NORCECA Championship in 2009 along with three individual prizes and repeated the feat in 2011. Cuba earned silver in the World Championship 2010 after losing in the final against Brazil.
He served as the national team’s youngest captain (he was 17). He finished third in the World League Sofia 2012 in 2012. Wilfredo León left Cuba in 2013 to play for a club outside of the country, therefore ending his chances of representing Cuba at the national level.
In 2014, he joined Zenit Kazan of Russia, where he won numerous CEV Champions League, national leagues, and cups. In 2015 and 2016, he also spent time on the sidelines with Al Rayyan of Qatar. León joined the SIR Safety Perugia team in September 2018. He was granted Polish citizenship on July 14, 2015, and he became completely eligible to play for the Polish national volleyball team five years later.
After leaving Cuba in 2014, León says he received many citizenship offers, some of which included a large sum of money, similar to other Cuban celebrities. He selected Poland primarily because he had a Polish girlfriend, Malgorzata León, who is now his wife and mother of his two children, and Poland is a volleyball-loving country.
Until 2019 he was able to play for Poland’s national team and to represent a country with a predominantly white population of 38 million people. León is one of a few thousand African-Americans who live in the city.
He claims that he has been welcomed into his new house. Now all he wants is to win a gold medal and cement his place in the sport he adores.
Since 1976, Poland has not won an Olympic gold medal or even advanced to the gold medal match, but its people have long admired the sport. It is most likely Poland’s second most popular sport, after soccer. León has taken the sport to a new level, having chosen Poland as his home country partly because of its culture.
Kevin Barnett, a two-time Olympian, and NBC Sports volleyball pundit, said his former teammate Vital Heynen, who now coaches Poland’s national team, informed him he no longer had to compete for the country’s top large athletes in basketball. “They are all choosing volleyball,” Barnett stated.
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Net Worth
Wilfredo Leon has a net worth of $66 million, despite his youth. Leon is a Cuban-Polish volleyball player, as previously stated. Leon earned $55k as basic pay when he was a member of the Cuban National Team.
Wilfredo, meanwhile, decided to transfer to Russia in 2014 to play for Zenit Kazan. Zenit and Leon also agreed to a four-year contract with a base pay guarantee of $1.4 million.
Aside from that, Wilfredo is regarded as one of the best-paid volleyball players in the world. Wilfredo’s net worth is primarily derived from his volleyball career.
Leon, on the other hand, is still young and has a strong desire to accomplish something in life, which is why he strives to get as much money as possible from the game. As a result, Leon’s pay is expected to increase with each passing year.
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Personal Life
Wilfredo Leon was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Wilfredo León Hechavarra and Alina Venero Boza are his parents (former volleyball players). He attended the Cuban National Volleyball School. León Venero and his Polish partner spent some time in Poland. He married Malgorzata on June 24, 2016. Natalia, their daughter, was born on May 13, 2017.
Wilfredo appears to spend more of his free time with his family after marrying Malgorzata, emphasizing the significance of fatherhood. His professional vocation had previously provided him with satisfaction as a holiday on tour. Even if Wilfredo Leon is willing, he is still concentrating on the match and practice.
He once posted a photo with his family on social media and wished everyone a good new year. Apart from that, Wilfredo keeps his personal life and relationships private, but everything else is visible through his social media posts.
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Conclusion
Wilfredo is known as the “Volleyball Cristiano Ronaldo” for his exploits on the court, most notably when he led the Cuban National Team to a silver medal in the 2010 World Championship, which is regarded as the “miracle of the century” in Volleyball history. He played in leagues for seven years after leaving the Cuban national team, winning every individual award conceivable.
Wilfredo Len is now the face of volleyball around the world, and although just being 28, he has seen everything on and off the volleyball court. He has always fought against the odds and proven everyone wrong. We’ll look at his lifestyle and the money he’s made from his volleyball career in this post.
