Sergey Monya is one of the most famous basketball players in Russia. A born leader with excellent basketball skills, as well as an indispensable soul of the company. 2007 European Champion, multiple winner of the Russian Championship, PBL and VTB League as part of many teams ... The regalia and dignity of this wonderful player can be listed for a very long time. Now we will tell you who Sergey Monya is and how he became a legend of Russian basketball.
The childhood of the future champion
Sergey Alexandrovich Monya was born in the city of Saratov on April 15, 1983. My father worked as a truck driver, and my mother was the farm manager. The first sport of Sergey was football, he gave him about 4 years, and later, on the advice of a friend, he began to practice basketball. He began, like many stars, from the smallest, from the children's sports and youth school.
At 17, the already promising player began to play for the local Avtodor. The first trainer who raised the future champion was Lyubov Polyakova, who literally nurtured a young talent. Sergey’s parameters are ideal for basketball - an increase of 203 centimeters. Success was not long in coming; already in 2000, basketball player Sergei Monya raised the Russian championship cup above his head, and after a short time became the best forward of the tournament.
Career in CSKA and NBA
Due to the financial problems of the Saratov club, the player had to leave the team, since the scouts of the CSKA basketball had noticed him for a long time. Of course, the first time he had to pretty “sit” on the bench of the eminent and titled club, however, speaking for the army, he won the national championship three times. The ambitions of the future European champion did not allow Sergei to sit on the bench, and already in 2004 the athlete put forward his candidacy for a draft in the NBA, the strongest basketball league in the world! Monya gave an excellent start to the national basketball association, but, unfortunately, failed to gain a foothold. Many basketball specialists still don’t understand the reason: maybe they didn’t manage to adapt to life in the USA, maybe they couldn’t stand the speed of the American game ...
In 2006, Sergei Monya signed a contract with the capital Dynamo, for which he had long dreamed of playing. For the blue and white star striker played four seasons. In 2007, Sergey won, perhaps, the most important award for himself and his homeland in the history of modern Russian basketball - the European Champions Cup. Having passed this tournament shoulder to shoulder with Andrei Kirilenko (now the president of the Russian Federation of basketball), John Robert Holden, Vitaliy Fridzon, Alexander Kaun and many others, Sergey Monya hung a cherished champion medal. David Blat, who in those years served as the head coach of the national team, repeated many times that Sergey is by far the most talented and diligent player of all with whom he had to work in the national team. Agree, this praise from one of the best European trainers is worth a lot!
The long-term leader of Khimki
From 2010 to the present, basketball player Sergei Monya has been playing for the club of the same name from the city of Khimki. The unbending leader of the Russian national team led the club from Mytishchi to the championship in the most prestigious tournament of Russia, as well as the European Cup. This did not end Sergey’s champion gait, in 2012 he took the bronze of the Olympic Games in London, forever writing his name in history.
In June 2016, Sergey announced that he was ending his career in the national team. The 33-year-old athlete decided to concentrate on speaking for his professional club. As the president of the Russian Basketball Federation Andrei Kirilenko said: "Monya did a lot for the main team of the country, he always came at the first call and helped the team, he definitely deserved a rest." Many experts and functionaries note that Sergey made a huge contribution to the development of the national team, raised the prestige of playing for it among professional basketball players from other clubs, for whom Monya, no doubt, is an authority.
Big victories are ahead!
Sergey is only 33 years old; he is in excellent physical and psychological shape. This suggests that in the new basketball season of the long-term leader of Khimki new games, new battles, new victories await! Sergey Monya is a basketball player of the highest class, and he is still full of strength and desire to conquer new heights, achieve truly golden results!