The Guide in the storm: Raul Lozano’s unbroken passion at 70
Feature
On the sidelines of Arena 8888, where the intensity of CEV Enel EuroVolley 2026 Men is slowly but surely building, Raúl Lozano stands as a figure of quiet, resolute authority. At 70 years old, the Argentine tactician is the oldest head coach in the tournament. Yet, watch him during a timeout or along the bench, and any notion of age quickly dissolves into raw, unyielding engagement.
Lozano’s career in high-performance Volleyball began when he was just 18 years old. More than five decades later, the fire that propelled a young coach into the profession remains entirely unquenched. For Lozano, coaching has never been merely a job; it is the single passion of a lifetime.
Raul Lozano“The first thing is that I love to coach. I feel a passion - for so many years, it has been the work of my entire life. I started very young, at 18, and that passion remains completely intact.”
Head coach of Ukraine
The Ukraine chapter
What drives a veteran who has already stood on the world’s grandest stages - leading national teams like Poland, Germany, Iran, Spain, and China - to take on one of the most complex assignments in modern sport?
The answer lies in both his appetite for continuous growth and a profound human empathy. Lozano took the helm of the Ukrainian national team during a difficult time for the Ukrainian Volleyball family.
For Lozano, taking charge of Ukraine is about tangible personal contribution.
“My grain of sand is to help the Ukrainian federation and Ukrainian Volleyball, if I can give my contribution.”
Unlike any other national team in elite Volleyball, Ukraine’s players are operating completely away from home for five continuous months a year, as the team moves between temporary training bases.
An eternal student of high performance
When asked if his journey at age 70 serves as a conscious message of perseverance to the world, Lozano pushes back gently. He is not interested in preaching or adopting a grandiose narrative. He simply speaks what he feels.
In Lozano’s philosophy, high-performance coaching is an endless process of learning. There is no point at which a coach has mastered everything, because sport - and the human beings who play it - are constantly evolving.
Raul Lozano“A high-performance coach never stops learning. There is always a player who needs a correction, or who invents a new solution that you have to be attentive enough to incorporate. Whether it’s tactical solutions, harnessing player creativity, or group management, there is always something new.”
Head coach of Ukraine
The art of the adaptable guide
Over a storied career spanning multiple continents, Lozano has learned that leadership cannot be rigid. Guiding a national team in Ukraine is fundamentally different from managing a team in Germany, Iran, China, or Poland. Even within the same culture, different eras demand different approaches, as he experienced during his two distinct stints in Spain.
Lozano views the coach’s role primarily as that of a guide - someone who must constantly adapt to extract the maximum potential from every individual.
“You have to know how to adapt and understand what you can get out of each of your players to guide them to their maximum potential. What I have inside my head might work, or it might not. Every year, I have to update myself on how to manage each player individually.”
With a roster of 14 distinct personalities, each carrying unique virtues and personal struggles, Lozano rejects a one-size-fits-all methodology. He sits down with one player for an intimate emotional conversation, while offering another purely technical instructions.
Emotional tools vs. psychology
Does this tailored human approach mean a head coach is part psychologist? Lozano is careful to draw a clear line.
“It would be arrogant to say I do psychology. I don’t do psychology. I use some tools. Psychologists deal with crises and deep distress; we aren't treating those kinds of issues here.”
Instead, Lozano focuses on guiding athletes through the unique, high-voltage pressure cooker of modern professional sport. In an era where matches take place under blinding spotlights and social media can be fiercely cruel, managing emotional pressure on the court has become a critical discipline.
“The emotion of a match is extraordinarily high because we are on a massive stage, backed by huge expectations, and social media today can be terribly cruel," Lozano stated.
Raul Lozano"You have to learn to guide players under these precise circumstances. Social media didn't exist when I started. But as a coach, my job as a guide is to help each player improve technically, physically, and on the court - so they reach their maximum potential and lift the team.”
Head coach of Ukraine
Enduring together in hotel rooms
That guidance is tested nowhere more than in the daily realities of Ukraine’s nomadic life. For five straight months, Lozano and his squad live out of hotel rooms, away from home.
“It is a terribly hard life. Five months in hotels... we are the only national team in the world doing this. Two and a half months in Slovenia, two and a half months in Tallinn, this year. It is a difficult, and we have to learn to live with it together.”
Yet, as EuroVolley unfolds in Sofia, Raúl Lozano remains right where he belongs: on the sideline, clipboard in hand, eye on the next rally, forever learning, forever guiding.