Tuomas Sammelvuo

Tuomas Petteri Sammelvuo (born 16 February 1976) is a Finnish professional volleyball coach and former player. He serves as head coach for the Canada national team and the Polish PlusLiga team, Asseco Resovia.

Sammelvuo is still the only Finnish male volleyball player to have won the Champions League (2005). Having played 296 games in the national team, he has the second largest number of games in the Finnish volleyball history.

Personal life
Sammelvuo has two brothers and a sister. He speaks six languages: Finnish, French, English, Italian, Polish and Russian, is married to Petra and has two children.

Early career
Sammelvuo started his volleyball career in Pudasjärvi, northern Finland. When he turned 16, he moved to Tampere. Sammelvuo played in Finland youth national team, which reached fourth place at the 1995 Junior World Championship.

Finland
Sammelvuo started his professional career at the age of sixteen, in Raision Loimu. After that, he moved to KuPS, and won two league titles and one silver medal.

Professional career
From KuPS, Sammelvuo moved to the French team, Strasbourg VB. Sammelvuo spent there one year, and then moved to Stade Poitevin Poitiers. In 2000, he signed a contract in Italy, and started playing in Cuneo. Sammelvuo played for them for two seasons before moving to Piacenza. In Piacenza, he won the Italian Cup. In 2003, he returned to France and joined Tours VB.

In his first season in France, Sammelvuo won the French Champion title and made it to the Champions League semifinals, losing there to Lokomotiv Belgorod, the future competition winner. He ended the next season in Tours as the Champions League winner, being the first ever player from Finland to win the trophy.

After two seasons spent in Tours, Sammelvuo moved to Japan and started playing for Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza. He was the first ever Finnish volleyball player in Japan.

In 2006, Sammelvuo joined the Russian team, Dynamo Kaliningrad.

The 2008–09 season, Sammelvuo spent playing in Italy for Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia. For the 2009–10, he signed a contract with the Polish PlusLiga team, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle. In 2011, he joined the Russian team, Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. He came back to Lokomotiv for the 2012–13 season, after one season spent in Italy.

National team
He was appointed captain of the Finland national team in 1997. At the 2007 European Championship held in Russia, Finland came in fourth place and made Finland ball games history. Overall, Sammelvuo played 296 games in the national team.

As a player

 * CEV Champions League
 * Gold medal europe.svg 2004–05 – with Tours VB
 * CEV Challenge Cup
 * Simple gold cup.svg 2001–02 – with Noicom Cuneo
 * Domestic
 * 1994–95 Simple gold cup.svg Finnish Cup, with KuPS Kuopio
 * 1994–95 Gold medal with cup.svg Finnish Championship, with KuPS Kuopio
 * 1995–96 Simple gold cup.svg Finnish Cup, with KuPS Kuopio
 * 1995–96 Gold medal with cup.svg Finnish Championship, with KuPS Kuopio
 * 1998–99 Gold medal with cup.svg French Championship, with Stade Poitevin Poitiers
 * 2001–02 Simple gold cup.svg Italian Cup, with Noicom Brebanca Cuneo
 * 2003–04 Gold medal with cup.svg French Championship, with Tours VB
 * 2004–05 Simple gold cup.svg French Cup, with Tours VB
 * 2010–11 Simple gold cup.svg Russian Cup, with Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

As a coach

 * CEV Champions League
 * Gold medal europe.svg 2022–23 – with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle


 * CEV Cup
 * Simple silver cup.svg 2020–21 – with Zenit Saint Petersburg


 * Domestic
 * 2018–19 Gold medal with cup.svg Russian Championship, with Kuzbass Kemerovo
 * 2022–23 Simple gold cup.svg Polish Cup, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
 * 2023–24 Simple gold cup.svg Polish SuperCup, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle

Individual awards

 * 2014: Coach of the year in Finland
 * 2021: Coach of the year in Finland
 * 2023: Coach of the year in Finland