Profile Vladimir Samsonov

Day of Birth:17.04.1976 (in Minsk)
Nationality: Belarus
Marital Status: married, 2 sons (Victor, Iwan)
Height: 1,89 m
Weight: 83 kg
At Borussia: from 1994 until 2000
Current club: Fakel Gazprom Orenburg
World Ranking: 15 (11/2017)
Best Worldranking: 1 (Dezember 1997, Dezember 1999)
Punch: right handed
Hobbies: Music, reading, movies
Languages: Russian, English, German, Serbian, Spanish, Belarussian

Titles with Borussia:

Champions League 2000
European Cup Champion 1997, 1998
ETTU-Cup 1995
German Champion 1995, 1996, 1998
German Cup 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 

Other successes:

Five times Olympic Player
Nine times Champions League winner
Runner-up World Championships singles 1997
Runner-up World Championships doubles 1995
European Champion 1998, 2003, 2005
European Champion doubles 1998
European Champion mixed 1996
European Champion team 2003
Winner Europe Top 12 1998, 1999, 2001, 2007
Winner World Cup 1999, 2001, 2009
Winner Pro Tour Grand Finals 1997
24 times Pro Tour Champion
13 times Junior-European Champion

Vladimir Samsonov – Mr. Invincible

At the tender age of 18 Vladimir Samsonov moved from the TTC to Altena Borussia Dusseldorf in 1994. He quickly became one of the world's best table tennis players. With his first major success, the vice world champion in the double 1995 he entered the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time, from which he is not indispensable to the present day. After his runner-up titles in 1997 at the World Championship in singles and doubles, (with Jan-Ove Waldner) he even became the number 1 in the world.

Born in Minsk, Samsonov was very successful not only in his individual career, but also with Borussia Dusseldorf. In his first year at Borussia he could celebrate, alongside Jörg Rosskopf, his first German championship, the German Cup and the ETTU Cup. However, this should not be his only success experienced in his Borussia era. Overall, he was three times German Champion, five-times German Cup winner, triumphed twice in the European Cup of Champions, once in the ETTU Cup and even the Champions League in his last year with Borussia.

Manager Andreas Preuss: "Vladimir was one of the largest that we ever had. He came to Dusseldorf with a plastic bag and a small suitcase from Belarus,  he first played at Bayern. Then Petr Korbel stood at 15:0 victories for our team - and yet we opted for Vladi. He lost his first match against Fan Chan Mao, like all the other big plaayers, but then there were almost only victories. Our fans called him Mr. Invincible, he was almost unbeatable! Incredibly nice and intelligent, he speaks six languages and is still one of the world's best! "

In the 2000/2001 season, "Vladi" joined Belgian Club La Villette Charleroi. After a stop at the Spanish Club CTM Cajagranada he successfully plays for the team of Fakel Gazprom Orenburg in Russia since 2009, and is currently at the 11th place in the world rankings (as of April 2014).