Havana/Considered the best in the world in the 1989-1990 season, former Cuban volleyball player Joel Despaigne entered the International Volleyball Hall of Fame this weekend. The man from Santiago was one of the main figures of this sport on the Island between the 1980s and 1990s, and was part of the national team that won the 1989 World Cup and won the silver medal in the 1990 World Championship.
Thanks to an offensive game that made him one of the most outstanding attackers of his generation, Despaigne, nicknamed The devilwas an Olympic player in Barcelona 1992, where the Cuban team placed fourth, and in Atlanta 1996, an edition in which the Island obtained sixth position. After his second Olympic competition he ended his time with the Cuban team.
The former player born in Santiago de Cuba on July 2, 1966 was also key in the editions of the World League – today Volleyball Nations League– held between 1991 and 1997, in which Cuba achieved four second places and one third. He was also a reference in the teams that won the gold, silver and bronze medals in the 1987, 1991 and 1995 Pan American Games, and the title in the 1986 Central American and Caribbean Games.
Despaigne on the field “imposed respect on his rivals, because he was one of those attackers who did not demand a comfortable pass”
Despaigne is the first men’s player from the Island to enter the Hall of Fame and is the ninth Cuban to be awarded, after the best women’s team coach of the 20th century, Eugenio George, and the members of the women’s team, known as the Queens of the Caribbean, Mireya Luis, Magaly Carvajal, Regla Torres, Regla Bell, Taismary Agüero, Mirka Francia and Yumilka Ruiz, who is today national commissioner.
According to the official press, Despaigne on the field “imposed respect on his rivals, because he was one of those attackers who did not require a comfortable pass; he went for the ball with any delivery. That, and the power he put into his shots, were essential characteristics in him.” Furthermore, he highlights that the former athlete had “an irrepressible force that overflowed when he attacked the net, it was not for nothing that they called him The devil”.
Throughout his more than 350 international matches “he became a symbol of the powerful Cuban style of play and remains one of the most recognizable figures in the history of this sport,” said the committee that elected the man from Santiago to the Hall of Fame.
“He became a symbol of the powerful Cuban style of play and remains one of the most recognizable figures in the history of this sport”
After finishing his career as an active volleyball player in 2002, Despaigne settled in Italy, where he remains linked to the sport.
The former player was part of the golden generation of Cuban volleyball, which today is far from those feats. In the World Cups, the Island has experienced an unstoppable decline in its results since 2014. That year, in the tournament held in Poland, the Cubans finished in 11th place. Four years later, in the championship played in Italy and Bulgaria, the team finished in 17th place. In 2022, it finished in 14th place, while, in the last edition, in Philippines 2025, it obtained its worst result in history, occupying position 20.
Regarding the Olympic Games, the Island did not attend to the last two editions, and in the last one in which it participated, it finished in last place, tied with Mexico. Forty years earlier, he had recorded his best performance, in Montreal 1976, when he won the bronze medal. Then, in Barcelona 1992, with Despaigne in the national team, he achieved the second best result in history for Cuba, finishing fourth, behind Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States.
