Emanuele Zanini new head coach of Belgium’s Red Dragons
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Volley Vlaanderen has confirmed that Italian-born Emanuele Zanini will be leading the Red Dragons, the Belgian men’s national team. He succeeds Spaniard Fernando Muñoz, after the two parties agreed on terminating their agreement on January 1.
Emanuele Zanini“I am delighted and proud to have the opportunity to work with this team. This is my fifth national team and I would like to use all my experience to help the Red Dragons improve their ranking. With the current system, we have to win every set, every match and with that mindset, I want to start. Our first goal will be to qualify for the Final Four of the European Golden League. After that, the EuroVolley qualifiers will follow and we want to be at our best there too."
New head coach of Team Belgium
"I hope to travel to Belgium in April to start this new adventure," he added.
“The appointment of Zanini should bring innovation to the team and is fully in line with the further development of our talented youngsters towards the national team. As national coach of Turkey, Slovakia and Croatia, he always achieved an improvement in their world ranking. We also expect his approach to give the Red Dragons a new boost, with qualification for the European Championship and a rise in the world ranking being the first goals. We are currently 26th in the world,” says Jean-Paul De Buysscher, chair of Volley Vlaanderen.
Zanini stepped down as coach of the Croatian national team in late 2021. After eight years of absence from a European Championship, Zanini and Croatia qualified again for the continental flagship competition where they even made it to the second round. In 2008 and 2011, he won the European League title with Slovakia and finished a record fifth at the 2011 European Championship in Austria and Czech Republic.
As assistant to Andrea Anastasi, he also achieved some great successes with the Italian national team: European champion in 1999 and bronze at the Olympic Games in Sydney a year later. He is currently working at the highest level for Ravenna in Italy.
The European Golden League will be the first official tournament where Zanini will head the Red Dragons, with the first match, Belgium vs Latvia, scheduled for May 25, 2022.