Bulgaria's national team head coach Gianlorenzo Blengini is facing his first serious personnel decisions before the start of the Volleyball Nations League. The Italian specialist needs to determine the final 14 players who will travel to the first tournament in Brazil, with 17 volleyball players currently training at a camp in Samokov.
Several changes have occurred in the group that played in the friendly tournament "Silesia Cup" in Poland. Setter Lyuboslav Telkiyski dropped from the squad, while previously rested key figures Alex Grozdanov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Simeon Nikolov, and Rusi Zhalev joined the team.
Expectations for middle blocker Ivaylo Damyanov to join the camp were not met. The player will continue to be absent from the national team due to personal reasons and will not be available for the first week of the VNL.

Thus, currently training in Samokov are:

Setters:

• Simeon Nikolov

• Stoil Palev

Opposite hitters:

• Venislav Antov

• Dimitar Dimitrov

Outside hitters:

• Aleksandar Nikolov

• Zhasmin Velichkov

• Martin Atanasov

• Asparuh Asparuhov

• Denislav Bardarov

• Georgi Tatarov

Middle blockers:

• Alex Grozdanov

• Iliya Petkov

• Boris Nachev

• Preslav Petkov

Libero:

• Rusi Zhelev

• Damyan Kolev

• Dimitar Dobrev

The young talent Dimitar Peychinov also continues training with the group in Samokov. The 211-centimeter opposite hitter was urgently called up for the "Silesia Cup" tournament in Poland to compensate for the absence of a fourth middle blocker, and his time with the senior team provides valuable experience to one of the most promising young players in Bulgarian volleyball.
In practice, the big question marks for Blengini seem to be mainly related to the line of outside hitters and liberos. If we assume that the setter duo Simeon Nikolov and Stoil Palev is certain for Brazil, as well as the quartet of middle blockers led by Alex Grozdanov, then serious competition remains among the outside hitters.
It is not excluded that Bulgaria might travel with only one pure opposite hitter, which would free up another spot for an outside hitter or a second libero. This is one of the main dilemmas for the staff – whether the team should have two liberos, or if Blengini should take advantage of the new VNL 2026 regulations, according to which a second libero is no longer mandatory in the 14-player roster, and add another outside hitter to the squad. The absence of a second, nominal libero can be compensated by the possibility of one of the outside hitters being equipped as a libero for a specific match, which would give Blengini greater flexibility in his choices for subsequent games.
In any case, Blengini's final selection will also provide the first clearer signals of exactly how the Italian specialist sees the structure of the new national team and which players will play a leading role right at the beginning of the challenging season ahead for the national team.