Croatian Federation ends cooperation with Santarelli and Zanini

The Croatian Volleyball Federation has decided not to extend the contracts with Daniele Santarelli (40) and Emanuele Zanini (56), who have been at the helm of their women’s and men’s national teams for the last couple of years. Their contracts had expired with the end of the last national team season, but the parties took some time to discuss the possibility to continue their cooperation even further. However, after several months of talks, the Croatian Volleyball Federation opted not to continue to work with the two Italian experts who nevertheless left their mark during the time they spent at the helm of the Croatian national teams.

Daniele Santarelli started working with Team Croatia in the fall of 2018, after Croatia claimed gold earlier that year at the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona. Back then, Igor Lovrinov had just unexpectedly resigned from the position, with the national team placed under the interim guidance of Frane Žanić, also a former national team member and coach.

Santarelli’s coaching career literally sky-rocketed after starting as an assistant at Casalmaggiore from 2010 to 2014 – especially after he joined one of the best Italian teams - Conegliano - in 2015 as an assistant to Davide Mazzanti. Two years later, when Mazzanti became the coach of Team Italy, Santarelli took over the reins of Conegliano, with whom he won the Italian Championship, Cup and Super Cup several times – and became a European and world club champion too.

He successfully debuted with Team Croatia at EuroVolley 2019, which featured for the first time 24 participating teams. After making it through the pool stage held in Budapest, Croatia lost a dramatic 8^th final match to hosts Turkey in Ankara after leading 2-1 in sets. Croatia finished the competition in 11^th place. This past summer, after playing the EuroVolley pool stage in Zadar, Croatia unexpectedly lost in the 8^th Finals to France (2-3), again after leading 2-1 in sets, eventually settling for 10^th place. It was also Santarelli’s last game with the team.

Santarelli helped Croatia claim two silver medals from the Golden European League. In the 2019 final, Croatia lost to the Czech Republic (1-3) in Varaždin, and in 2021 to Bulgaria in Ruse (1-3). With the Croatian national team, Santarelli finished fourth in the FIVB Challenger Cup in Peru in 2019, and claimed 7^th place at the CEV Tokyo 2020 qualifier held in the Netherlands in January of 2020.

Emanuele Zanini started working with the men’s national team in the spring of 2019, when he replaced Ivan Rančić on the bench. In his rich career, he has led many Italian and foreign clubs, including standout ones such as Modena, Verona and Monza, but also the national teams of Slovakia and Turkey.

With the Croatian national team, he managed to qualify for EuroVolley 2021, the first time Croatia did so since 2015 – when the team finished the competition in 15^th place out of 16. After making it through the group stage in Tallinn, Croatia and Zanini lost in the 8^th Finals to eventual EuroVolley 2021 silver medal winners Slovenia, thus finishing 14^th (out of 24 national teams). Moreover, Croatia finished fourth in the 2021 edition of the Silver European League – and 8^th in the Golden League in 2019.

The Croatian Volleyball Federation has been looking to new experts to lead the women’s and men’s national teams, and will announce their names in the coming days.