The Italian job: five coaches at #EuroVolleyM

There will be five Italian coaches on the benches of different national teams playing at #EurovolleyM. “Chicco” Gianlorenzo Blengini for Bulgaria, “Fefè” Ferdinando de Giorgi for Italy, Andrea “Giangio” Giani for France, Fabio Soli for Slovenia and Emanuele Zanini for Belgium.

Here is the riddle: in all four groups of the next CEV ENEL EuroVolley, there is at least one. What is it? The answer: an Italian coach. Yes, you read correctly, because there will be five Italians on the bench of different national teams. They are: “Chicco” Gianlorenzo Blengini (Bulgaria), “Fefè” Ferdinando de Giorgi (Italy), Andrea “Giangio” Giani (France), Fabio Soli (Slovenia) and Emanuele Zanini (Belgium).

The head coach of Bulgaria, Gianlorenzo "Chicco" Blengini, 55 years old, is the former head coach of the Italian national team (with whom he won Olympic silver at Rio 2016). Then he moved to the Bulgarian bench in 2024, and under his leadership, the Bulgarian national team experienced great momentum, culminating in a historic silver medal at the 2025 World Championships. Blengini will run its group B on home soil in Varna, where they will play North Macedonia, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal and Israel.

Ferdinando "Fefè" De Giorgi, 64 years old, remains firmly at the helm of the Azzurri, confirmed as national team head coach with a contract extension running through the end of the 2026 season. He is the man who brought Italy back to the top of the volleyball world two gold medals in the last two World Championships and one silver in the last EuroVolley. Will De Giorgi be able to add another medal to his collection? The pressure is on him and on his team, as they will play all the qualification (and maybe finals?) matches in Italy, among Naples, Modena and Turin.

On the other side of the Alps, there is a long-time friend and former teammate of De Giorgi, Andrea Giani, 56 years old (they were part of the “Phenomenal Generation” of Italy in the '90s; they won 3 World Championships in a row from 1990 to 1998). The Bleus, last Olympic champions at Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2020, have been coached by Giani since 2022, and their palmarès also includes a gold medal at the 2024 Nations League. What will their final standing be at the next ENEL Eurovolley? They will face Romania, Latvia, Germany, Turkiye and Switzerland in group D in Romania.

Group A is the “most Italian” of the four groups, since there is also Fabio Soli on the bench of Slovenia. Soli, 46 years old, is also the head coach of the Italian men’s Club Rana Verona, and before that he also coached Trento Volley. A fun fact about him: he has a unique record in continental volleyball. He has managed to win the Challenge Cup as a player (in 2008 with Modena), as an assistant coach (in 2014 in Turkiye with Fenerbahçe), and as a head coach (in 2018 with Ravenna). Will he be able to break another record in the next EuroVolley?

Last but not least, Emanuele Zanin, 56 years old, is on the Belgian bench. He has been leading the “Red Dragons” (Belgium's national team) since 2022. Under his leadership, the Belgian squad has made an impressive leap in quality on the international stage: following strong performances at the last World Championship, they secured a historic promotion and made their debut in the prestigious Volleyball Nations League. Zanini is the globetrotter of the Italian coaches: he was appointed head coach of Slovakia in 2008 and he won two European Leagues (2008 and 2011). Then moved to the Turkish men's national team between 2013 and 2016. Again, he moved to Croatia from 2019 to 2021, and then he was appointed head coach of the Red Dragons.