The head coach of the Bulgarian men's national team, Gianlorenzo Blengini, is making his final calculations for the extended squad for the European Volleyball Championship.
Today, August 10th, is an important date not only for the national team's preparation in Samokov. According to official CEV communication, this is the deadline by which the CEV 05 Form with the long list for EuroVolley 2026 must be completed and closed for men. The European Confederation allows a maximum of 24 volleyball players to be included in it.
According to information from our media, Bulgaria will not use the maximum allowed quota, but will register 23 players.
And precisely on August 10th, the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation announced changes in the group preparing in "Arena SamElion". Lazar Buchkov and Dimitar Peychinov join the national team, while Boris Nachev drops out of preparation due to injury.
This makes the puzzle surrounding Blengini's choices even more interesting.

Buchkov returns, Peychinov is back with the men's team
Lazar Buchkov was not among the initial 15 for the camp in Samokov due to an ankle injury sustained at the end of the club season. The middle blocker has now recovered and resumes training with the national team.
The 213-centimeter Dimitar Peychinov also joins the group.
His case is curious. Peychinov is a nominal opposite hitter, but was part of the men's national team's preparation for the Nations League, when Blengini used him in the training process also as a middle blocker.

This gives the coach additional variability in constructing the squad, without at this stage giving reason to speak of a final change of position for the young volleyball player.

Nachev drops out of preparation
The federation only announced that middle blocker Boris Nachev is dropping out of preparation due to injury, without providing further details.
Nachev was part of Bulgaria's squad for the Silesia Cup, and then was among Blengini's 14 chosen players for all three Nations League tournaments.
However, his playing time remained minimal. The middle blocker finished the VNL with a total of 2 points – 1 from attack and 1 directly from serve, with no block points and 33.33% attack efficiency.
Nachev also had injury problems during the club season in Italy with Padua and practically only managed to return to a full playing rhythm in its final part.
Despite limited playing time, Blengini consistently kept him around the national team. Nachev was at the Silesia Cup, was included in the group for all three VNL tournaments, and then was among the initial 15 who started preparations for EuroVolley in Samokov.
However, his dropping out of the camp now does not automatically mean that Nachev will not be among the 23 in CEV 05. The long list for the European Championship and the group that is actually preparing in Samokov are two different things.

From 26, 23 must remain
Bulgaria's initial list included 26 volleyball players.
Given that, according to information from our media, 23 will be registered in CEV 05, three of these names must be dropped.

Here is the initial list:

The distribution itself shows how complex the choice is. Blengini has five setters, eight outside hitters, seven middle blockers, four nominal opposites, and two liberos. Moreover, Peychinov has already been used as an option in the middle, which gives the staff additional flexibility in distributing players by position.

Two names seem most logical
When reducing from 26 to 23, two names seem like the most logical candidates to be left off the list – Dimitar Dobrev and Hristiyan Dimitrov.
For both, the main factor is health problems that prevented them from being part of the national team's current preparation.
If the expectations for Dobrev and Hristiyan Dimitrov are confirmed, the big question remains – who is the third?
Here, the answer does not seem so obvious.

Five setters – too many or a necessary insurance?
The presence of as many as five setters in the initial list is striking – Simeon Nikolov, Lyuboslav Telkiyski, Stoil Palev, Viktor Zhekkov, and Anton Stanchev.
For a group of 23, this seems like a serious number at first glance.
However, the long list has a different function than the final squad for the European Championship. Blengini does not select 23 players who will necessarily be gathered in a training camp or travel to the championship. He defines the pool of volleyball players from whom he will subsequently make his final choice. Therefore, five setters might seem like a lot, but they can also be seen as an insurance for one of the most specific positions in the team.

There are also many options for middle blockers
The situation with the middle blockers is no less interesting.
The initial list includes Alex Grozdanov, Iliya Petkov, Preslav Petkov, Boris Nachev, Ivaylo Damyanov, Kiril Kolev, and Lazar Buchkov.
Buchkov has already recovered and is joining the camp. Nachev is out of the current preparation, and Peychinov gives Blengini another option for the position.
But here too, we should not automatically equate presence in Samokov with presence in CEV 05.

23 in CEV does not mean 23 in Samokov
This is one of the key clarifications when trying to interpret Blengini's choice.
The preparation started with 15 volleyball players. Now Buchkov and Peychinov join them, while Nachev drops out of the group – meaning 16 remain.
However, this does not mean that the other players are automatically out of contention for EuroVolley.
The long list allows the coach to keep more options than he actually needs in the daily training process. Some of those registered may remain outside the camp and be available if needed. It is possible that one of them may be replaced before the final clarification of the 14 for EuroVolley 2026.

Medical replacement makes the long list even more important
There is another significant detail in the CEV rules that explains why the long list should not be viewed simply as an administrative formality.
After the preliminary check, a player from the final squad can be replaced for medical reasons, but only under strictly defined conditions. The player who takes his place must necessarily be pre-listed in the long list submitted by the respective national federation via CEV 05.
This means that a volleyball player who is currently not even participating in the camp in Samokov could subsequently turn out to be an extremely important backup option for the European Championship.
Medical replacement does not allow for free rearrangement of the squad. It must be supported by the necessary medical documentation for the injury, and the team bears the costs associated with the replacement.
There is also another significant restriction – according to CEV rules, a team can use only one such medical substitution during the tournament. The procedure is one-way: once substituted, the player cannot subsequently return to the squad for the same competition.
Thus, the names after Blengini's immediate 14 chosen players acquire a completely different value. They are not just 'on paper' reserves. There must be enough options among them for different positions, because it is precisely from the pre-registered pool that a possible medical substitution can be made.
This also provides an additional explanation why Blengini might prefer to keep more players in certain positions, even if some of them will not be in the permanent training group.

The third name remains a mystery
This is where the most interesting part of the choice lies.
If Dimitar Dobrev and Hristiyan Dimitrov are indeed two of the three names that will be dropped from the initial 26, there is no obvious candidate for the last spot. At first glance, this is Boris Nachev, but only at first glance.
On second thought, five setters seem like a lot. The seven nominal middle blockers also provide serious depth. But the medical substitution rule changes the way we should look at these numbers.
Blengini must think not only about the players who will start EuroVolley, but also about what options he will have in an unforeseen situation during the tournament.
That is precisely why, at this stage, anything beyond the first two names would be rather speculative.
And it is Blengini's third choice that becomes the most interesting part of the squad reduction. For now, it remains the big mystery in Gianlorenzo Blengini's puzzle.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov