Daniel Martínez: the prodigy is already here

August 27, 2025

The young Cuban volleyball player Daniel Martínez (19 years old) amazes and generates diverse comments among the press and specialists who follow the incidents of the U-21 Men's World Championship, which takes place in the Chinese city of Jiangmen and in which the Caribbean player leads the main individual standings so far.

Martínez has literally taken on his shoulders the greatest weight of the Cuban six-man team's performance, which was seeking to confirm its advance to the round of 16 when it faced Colombia in group C of the competition.

The Caribbean player, son of former central blocker Mabel Campos—who was part of pre-selection and national teams (1986-1997) and played for Pallavolo Palermo (1998-1999)—is the tournament's leading scorer so far with 101 points in four matches and a wide margin over his closest followers: Egyptian setter Mahmoud Houda (79) and Turkish opposite Uner Yilmaz (77).

Martínez also leads in attack (83 points and magnificent 57.24 percent efficiency), service (12 aces) and also six points through blocking.

The Cuban team has two victories—over Bulgaria (3-1) and Brazil (3-0)—and two defeats, 0-3 against Japan and a very close 2-3 against the Czech Republic, which was decided in favor of the Central Europeans largely due to the trifle of 36 unforced errors committed, a section that precisely constitutes the pending issue for the team, just as it occurs in our national squad.

The disciples of coach Liam Sem Estrada and his assistant Yosvany Muñoz have accumulated 103 errors in these matches and will have to improve greatly in this to manage to win in the next phase of the tournament.

They have fared better in attack with percentages above 50 in three of the four matches—exception against Japan (33 in 70 attempts), as well as with service, particularly Martínez and setter Ronaldo Flaquet (captain of the squad), but they equally need to strengthen the work in blocking.

Martínez is supported offensively by setter Carlos Javier Larrea, with good offensive performance (55.06 percent), quite the opposite of his counterpart Félix Ernesto Rodríguez, with very little contribution against the Czech Republic and poor accumulated efficiency of 38.89 percent.

It is urgent that the middle blockers José Ángel Morejón and Nathan Massó raise their performance in blocking, just as captain Flaquet in passing (he is currently in 10th place in that position), while it is worth noting that libero Jhonan Álvarez currently ranks as the tournament's fourth best in reception.