Nine Olympians set to fight for the men's title in Espinho

The race for the men’s title of the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup, which started with 26 national teams back in May, is now limited to just eight, and they’re set to meet this week, from July 17-20, in Espinho, where the Finals are going to be held.

Playing from Thursday to Sunday at the Popular Praia da Baía will be representatives of Austria, Denmark, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, which each won their Preliminary Phase pools, and hosts Portugal. Introduced to the European beach volleyball calendar in 2022, the Beach Nations Cup is an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis.

The eight countries qualified will be split into two pools of four. The three best teams in each pool will progress to the elimination rounds, with the pool winners advancing directly to the semifinals and countries ranked second and third playing a quarterfinal round.

CEV Beach Nations Cup Finals – Men

The men’s tournament in Portugal will feature a strong field, which will include nine Olympians and three Olympic medalists and world champions.

The top team in the FIVB World Rankings, Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum are the most accomplished tandem in the men’s event, boasting two Olympic medals (gold in Tokyo 2020 and bronze in Paris 2024), one world (2022) and four EuroBeachVolley titles (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). They will represent Norway alongside Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen.

Having Alexander Brouwer/Steven van de Velde and Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot as their representatives, the Netherlands are the only country to count on four Olympians in their team. The 35-year-old Brouwer, who represented the country at both Rio 20216, where he took bronze, and Tokyo 2020, is the most accomplished of them, having won the World Championship back in 2013. Van de Velde (bronze in 2024), Boermans and de Groot (silver in 2021) all won EuroBeachVolley medals within the last few years.

Defending champions France will have one Paris Olympian in each of their teams and return three of the four players who took them to the title last year in Jurmala. Olympian Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and partner Téo Rotar will be back together, while fellow Olympian Rémi Bassereau is now paired with Calvin Aye.

Completing the list of Olympians set to compete in Espinho this week is Austrian Julian Hörl, who represented his country at the Paris Games last year. He’s paired with Philipp Waller, while youngsters Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg form the country’s second duo.

Hosts Portugal will put most of their hopes in the country’s top team of Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa. Brothers Gonçalo and Tomas Sousa will be together, joining their compatriots in front of their home fans.

Spain also have a pair of brothers in their team, with Alejandro and Javier Huerta joining forces to represent their country this week in Espinho. The other duo will be formed by Álvaro Vieira and Antonio Saucedo.

Arguably the biggest surprise in the men’s field, Denmark will be represented by Nicolai Hovmann/Christian Andersen in their squad. Lithuania, which also overcame higher-ranked opponents to qualify, will try to continue defying the odds with Robert Juchnevic/Artur Vasiljev and Arnas Rumsevicius/Karolis Palubinskas.

Pool play for the men in Espinho will go from Thursday to Friday. The quarterfinals will take place on Saturday, with the semifinals and the final scheduled for Sunday.