The Bulgarian national volleyball team will start its participation in this year's edition ofVolleyball Nations League (VNL) 2025with a match against one of the most formidable opponents –Italy, which was officially presented today at a special press conference inAuditorium Testori in Palazzo Lombardia.

The Italian coachFerdinando De Giorgiannounced the extended squad of 30 players who will be available for VNL. 🇮🇹 The start of the tournament for Italy will be inQuebec City (June 11–15), where, in addition to Bulgaria, the “Azzurri” will compete againstGermany, France, and Argentina.

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• Simone Giannelli – the undisputed leader and captain

• Riccardo Sbertoli

• Paolo Porro

• Mattia Boninfante

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• Alessandro Michieletto

• Daniele Lavia

• Francesco Recine

• Davide Gardini

• Mattia Bottolo

• Tim Held

• Luca Porro

• Francesco Sani

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• Roberto Russo

• Simone Anzani

• Edoardo Caneschi

• Lorenzo Cortesia

• Francesco Comparoni

• Giovanni Gargiulo

• Giovanni Sanguinetti

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• Alessandro Bovolenta

• Yuri Romano

• Giulio Pinali

• Fabrizio Gironi

• Kamil Rychlicki

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• Fabio Balaso

• Gabriele Laurenzano

• Marco Gaggini

• Domenico Pace

After Canada, Italy will continue inthe second week of the competition in Chicago (June 25–30), where they will meetPoland, China, Brazil, and hosts USA. The final stage of the group phase is scheduled forLjubljana (July 16–20)againstSerbia, Ukraine, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

🎯 The Final Eight will be played inNingbo (China) from July 30 to August 3.

🇧🇬A serious challenge awaits Bulgaria in the very first match, but also an opportunity to demonstrate its strength against some of the biggest names in world volleyball. Our opponent has a solid foundation of experienced players at the highest level, but also young stars who are yet to prove themselves. We eagerly await the final squad with which De Giorgi will arrive in Canada.

photo: Nikolay Varadinov