Giulio Cesare Bregoli to lead Swedish women’s national team to further success

Italy’s Giulio Cesare Bregoli is taking over the reins of the Swedish women’s national team. For over ten years, the 49-year-old has been working as a head coach at the highest level on the international stage. Bregoli started his journey in France with Saint-Raphaël Var Volley-Ball (2013-2019), which he helped make one of the top sides in the renowned French national league. He is currently leading Italy’s Reale Mutua Fenera ’76 CHIERI, which at the time of writing is in fifth place in the world’s most competitive league, where the Swedish trio of Alexandra Lazic, Anna Haak and Isabelle Haak compete. 

Bregoli has much experience working with national teams. Starting from 2017 up until 2022, he was an assistant coach of Team Italy, securing EuroVolley gold (in 2021) as well as silver and bronze medals from the 2018 and 2022 editions of the FIVB Women’s World Championship. The fact that he stays for a long time in the teams he takes on shows that he is appreciated and that he goes into every assignment wholeheartedly. The successes on the court speak for themselves too. In France, he led his team to the league title twice before returning to his homeland. Once there, the success streak has since continued with impressive finishes in the upper half of the Serie A table. As recently as last spring, Bregoli did help his side all the way to the title in the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup. 

Now he is at the helm of the Swedish women’s national team too, a task he combines with the job as head coach in Serie A. “I have followed the team’s journey with curiosity in recent years, so when this opportunity arose there was never any doubt - the decision was simple. Sweden has great potential and strong players around Europe, and some of them I can follow closely in Italy. There is also no denying that it feels great to be able to work together with a player like Isabelle Haak. I coached against her in France when she took the first steps abroad and I am now coaching against her again in Italy. I know what she is up to. Let’s state that I am happy to have her on my side of the net in the national team,” Bregoli continues. 

The work to appoint a new head coach has been ambitious and thorough: 

The blue-and-yellow successes of recent years have echoed in the vast volleyball world, something that was clearly felt in the process of appointing a new coach. Ljungqvist further elaborates: “The interest in coaching our women’s national team is great. There are many high-calibre coaches who have been attracted by the opportunity, which feels incredibly fun. We are in a very exciting time where we continue to invest towards reaching the very highest level. Last year, the girls were up and sniffing for advancement to the Volleyball Nations League and showed that the step there is not too far away. It has been a remarkable journey in recent years, and we want to continue it together with Giulio. We believe he can continue to develop both the team as a whole and each player individually.”

With the European Golden League and EuroVolley qualifiers, Sweden’s volleyball ladies have a busy 2024 to look forward to. In May and June, they will mount a challenge again in the European Golden League, where six matches against six different national teams await them in the League Round. The first two matches are played at home on May 17 and 19, respectively. In August, both the women’s and men’s national teams will contest the EuroVolley 2026 qualifiers, which will provide local fans with additional chances to experience and follow the national teams on Swedish soil. The work to recruit a new head coach for the men’s team is entering the final phase.