Yuji Nishida

Yuji Nishida (西田 有志) is a Japanese left-handed volleyball player.

Currently Nishida plays for Panasonic Panthers at club level.

In his fourth year of elementary school, Nishida achieved a huge goal of winning the 29th All Japan Volleyball Tournament in Mie Prefecture.

In his sixth year of elementary school, he became the captain and led the team to win the President's Cup of Mie Prefecture Club Volleyball Federation

After graduation, he went to a local junior high (middle school) which was not a powerhouse.

Nishida had the opportunity to participate in Kaisei High School's volleyball club practice in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture as he was a regular player since freshman year.

His play there caught the attention of Masanobu Onishi, the volleyball team manager at that time, and Katsunari Fujita, the head of the team.

In June of the same year, he joined the junior high school club team 'NFO Ocean Star', recommended by Fujita.

In March 2013, Nishida was selected for the U-14 team in the Hokusei district of Mie Prefecture.

In August of the same year, he was selected for the Mie Prefecture selection team and competed with teams from all over Japan in the Junior Olympic cup held in December.

He chose to decline the powerhouses in his prefectures and chose to go to Kaisei High School which had never been to nationals.

He later joined the newly established U-19 of the local club team Veertian Mie.

In June, they won the U-19 boys division of the Mie Prefecture Young Volleyball Championship, and in September, they won the national championship.

Nishida received the Japan Young Club Volleyball Federation Award as an outstanding player in that tournament.

Just as he had done in junior high school, Nishida practiced with three different teams and went on to compete in the Mie Prefectural High School Championship (Haruko Preliminaries) in November.

In March 2017, Nishida had a name in Japan men's national under-19 volleyball team and competed in 2017 Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship.

In October 2017, He joined club JTEKT Stings.

Nishida made his debut with JTEKT Stings at V.League on 6 January 2018 in a match against Osaka Blazers Sakai.

His impressive debut at the young age of 17 soon earned him a position in JTEKT's Starting 6, as well as Japan men's national volleyball team.

Nishida was one of the youngest players in the 2018 roster of the Japan men's national volleyball team and FIVB cup Final.

He made his first international performance with the Japanese national team in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League.

In June 2018, he played a pivotal role in securing Japan's first win in 11 years against Italy where he collected 24 points from 21 spikes and 3 aces.

In September 2018, in a match against Argentina in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, Nishida became the youngest player ever to score 30 points in a match.

Nishida's V.League debut was on January 6, 2018, in a match against Sakai Blazers.

Nishida received the Wakawashi Award in Kurowashiki All Japan Volleyball Tournament which is the Rookie of the Year award.

He was called up to the Senior National team for the first time in April of age at 18.

Nishida made his senior national team debut on May 25, 2018, in his first Nations League match in Rouen, France.

He was named a starter in that match against Australia.

Then, in September, he competed in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, jointly hosted by Italy and Bulgaria.

Nishida had a minor foot injury and missed the first match with Italy.

In the V.League 2018–19 season, Nishida and Issei Otake from Panasonic Panthers jointly won the Best New Player award.

In June 2019, Nishida broke serving records in the VNL history after hitting 7 aces in a single game during a match against Canada.

Nishida transferred to play for Volley Callipo in the Italian Volleyball League for the 2021–22 season.

He received MVP of the match awards thrice in spite of an injury and subsequent 2-month recovery.

Nishida would become the highest scorer of his team, with a personal one-match record of 29 points, and held the record for the most aces in one match during the league's first round of the 2021/22 season with 8 aces.

Nishida first started volleyball due to his elder sister and brother and joined the same team as his brother 'Daian Beetles'.

While being fascinated by the Olympics, his attention was caught by Kunihiro Shimizu, a left-handed opposite like him which instigated and inspired him to want to be like Shimizu and compete in the Olympics.

In April 2019, Yuji Nishida was selected to represent Japan for the second year in a row.

The following October, the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup was held in Japan.

Nishida led the national team to seventh place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, its best result in 29 years.