Article by Roxana Fleşeru – Published Sunday, November 23, 2025, 11:31 / Updated Sunday, November 23, 2025 11:36
Paola Egonu (26 years old), named the best volleyball player in the world, gave details about what it means to be at the top of a team sport, but also how life outside of volleyball feels.
Olympic champion in 2024 and world champion in 2025, Paola Egonu was named sportswoman of the year by GQ Italia magazine, to which she also gave an interview.
A member of the Vero Volley Milano team, where she has an annual salary of 700,000 euros, she was born in Cittadella (Veneto), in a family from Nigeria. She plays on the opposite position and was declared the best volleyball player in the world this year.
Volleyball is a type of game where we depend a lot on each other. And the most important thing is the trust I feel from my teammates, from my staff. There I feel free to take risks and consequently give 10% more – Paola Egonu
Paola spoke in the interview for GQ that even the life of a successful athlete has a price:
“The life of an athlete is lonely. You have breakfast, you go to the gym, you come back, you have lunch, you go back to the gym, you have dinner and you go to bed. And you are always alone.
You get used to it, you start to like the solitude. You don't have time to stop, cry, talk. As soon as there's a problem, you have to react, move on,” she said.
1.95 m is the heightPaola Egonu
The Italian also touched on a sensitive aspect of the life of a performance athlete: “I am a woman and I want to be a mother. It's nine months you have to stop, your body changes, you don't know if you'll be able to get back to that level.”
Paola Egonu: “When a man has a child, he can immediately return to the field”
Therefore, it is difficult to mix career with the desire to become a parent:
“When a man has a baby, he can get right back on the field. It's a matter of body and recovery. For me, it's a huge conflict.
Paola Egonu placing a ball PHOTO Imago Images
If you want a child, you either have it first or take a career break, you come back, but if you can't, you give up and miss it. Is the time right? How can you say, “I'm coming back now”? For now, I've set a time limit, then we'll see.”
Egonu hasn't thought about the future yet: “However, I would definitely like to have the courage to stop at the right time in my career so that I can build my life after that and not be afraid of the unknown,” she concluded.
When you start a sport, you are full of passion, you fall in love, everything is beautiful. Then, at some point, everything stops. And from then on, perfection becomes an obsession. The difference in these levels is just how obsessed you are. I am too, yes. If you really want to reach the top, you have to be almost crazy – Paola Egonu
