Yuki Ishikawa

Club

Volley Milano

Position

Outside Hitter

Nationality

Japan

Date of birth

1995-12-11

Birthplace

Okazaki, Japan

Height

192 cm

Weight

84 kg

Shirt number

14

Yūki Ishikawa (石川祐希, Ishikawa Yūki, born 11 December 1995) is a Japanese male professional volleyball player from Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture.

Ishikawa is the first volleyball player to have a wax figure in Japan. Currently, his wax figure is displayed at Madame Tussauds Tokyo.

Ishikawa was named "Best outside spiker" award at the FIVB World Cup (2015, 2019), FIVB Nations League (2023), Asian Championship (2017, 2019, 2021), as well as "Most valuable player" award at the Asian Championship (2017, 2023).

As of April 2021, Ishikawa is the captain of the Japan men's national volleyball team, and plays as an outside hitter. He currently plays in the Italian Volleyball League for Allianz Milano.

Ishikawa's father, Mikihisa, is a former track and field sprinter of DENSO. His mother, Midori, is a former basketball player of DENSO. His elder sister, Naomi, is a former volleyball player and his sister, Mayu, is a member of the Japan women's national volleyball team.

Due to the influence of his elder sister, Ishikawa started playing volleyball in the 4th grade of Elementary School. His best achievement was an 8th place at the All Japan Volleyball Elementary School Tournament. In 2010, he won the bronze medal at the All Japan Junior High School Volleyball Championship. Then, he was selected as a captain of Aichi Prefecture, and won the silver medal at the JOC Junior Olympic Cup the same year. In High School, he became the first student to win "Triple Crown" at 3 tournaments: Inter-High, National Polity, Haruko Volley for 2 consecutive years.

In the 2014–2015 season, Ishikawa played for the Italian team Parmareggio Modena about 3 months after the end of the All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship. According to an official of the Japan Association, he was the first student to challenge an overseas league through university, and was also the first university freshman to play volleyball in the Italian Volleyball League. In the 2015–2016 season, he returned to Japan to continue playing for Chuo University's club. In December 2016, he transferred to Italy again, played for Top Volley Latina until 2018. During this time, he was an exchange student while actually still playing for his university.

After graduating from university in March 2018, Ishikawa signed his first professional contract with the Italian team Emma Villas Siena (The club was ranked up to the Italian Volleyball League in 2018–2019 season). He moved to Kioene Padova in the n