The grandson of Bulgarian volleyball legend Dimitar Zlatanov - Manuel Zlatanov will be back in Bulgaria in a month. The U17 Men's Volleyball World Championship will then take place. The Italian national team begins preparations for the World Championship this Thursday, with Hristo Zlatanov's son joining the team on the 28th.

Following the recommendation of technical coordinator Vincenzo Fanizza and first coach Luca Leoni, 17 athletes have been called to the camp: Riccardo Della Ventura; Costa Gioele (Verona Volley), Alessandro Zanchi, Federico Argano (Diavoli Rosa), Pietro Carrera (Imperia Volley), Gabriele Spina (Lube Volley), Gioele Miolo (Volley Prata), Martino Bigozzi, Gioele Imperato (Pal. San Lazzaro), Vittorio Bonandrini (Volley Milano), Pietro Valgiovio (Volley Montichiari), Charles Adjaye, Francesco Destro (Castiglione delle Stiviere), Lorenzo Basso (Young Energy Volley Piacenza). They will be joined from July 28 by: Manuel Zlatanov (Porto Robur Costa Ravenna), Francesco Crossato (Volley Treviso) and Jacopo Tosti (Cisterna Volley), who participated in the U18 Men's European Championship in Sofia and Plovdiv.

We remind you that the U17 Men's World Championship will be played in two Sofia venues - "Levski Sofia" and "Hristo Botev". Our team is in Group A together with the teams of Spain, Taiwan and Mexico.. 

Brazil, Italy and Iran are separately in the other three groups, so we will not play them in the group stage of the World Cup, but we can meet them in the eliminations (possibly Italy in the round of 16, and Brazil and Iran in the quarter-finals).

photos: Nikolay Varadinov