Gianlorenzo Blengini is already in Italy and for the first time since taking over the Bulgarian national team, he will combine his work with our national team with a club commitment. In the previous two years, the Italian had the opportunity to spend enough time in Bulgaria and personally monitor the Bulgarian championship. From this season, this will be difficult to achieve.
And there is a lot to watch. None of the 14 volleyball players with whom Bulgaria played at EuroVolley are currently competing in Bulgaria. Even Boris Nachev, who was with the team for almost the entire summer and dropped out just before the European Championship due to injury, is in the Italian Serie A2. At the same time, 10 of the 30 players in Blengini's extended squad play in Bulgaria.
EuroVolley showed that the national team already has a core, but also that rotation remains limited. For a large part of the tournament, the main burden was borne by eight or nine players. And Bulgaria still does not have an Olympic quota. We enter 2027 as No. 9 in the world, VNL 2027 and the 2027 World Cup are ahead, and if a quota is not won by then, the last opportunity will be through the world ranking after the preliminary phase of VNL 2028.
One of the players who deserves particularly close monitoring is Dimitar Peychinov. The 17-year-old Levski volleyball player, over 210 centimeters tall, was recruited by Blengini into the extended squad and spent two training camps with the men's national team.

Peychinov came as an opposite hitter, but during his work with the men, he started to be used as a middle blocker. We asked Blengini directly where he sees his future – opposite or middle blocker. The answer was unequivocal: "Middle blocker."
According to VolleyWeek, this direction has also been discussed with the management of Levski, and Peychinov will continue his development in this position. He already played as a middle blocker in the European qualifiers for the U20 national team in Sofia, where Bulgaria won a quota for EuroVolley.
There is still a way to go to the men's national team, but Peychinov's case shows why the staff's work does not end with the selection of the current 14. At the European Championship, it became clear that Bulgaria needs more options in the middle. We face players like the 217-centimeter Bartosz Lemański, and with such physique, centimeters at the net matter. They do not in themselves make a volleyball player a national team member, but Blengini has already started specific work with Peychinov, and now it is important how his development at Levski will continue.
The other indicative position is the libero. Dimitar Dobrev was ill for much of the summer and could not recover in time. Blengini used the nominal outside hitter Zhasmin Velichkov as a libero, and his move proved successful. However, the coach himself confirmed to the Italian VolleyNews that Velichkov will continue his development as an outside hitter in Monza.

Dobrev is now playing for Levski again, and among the 30 are also Yasen Petrov from Neftochimik 2010 and Kaloyan Botev from Montana. Three of the options for this position are before our eyes in the Bulgarian championship.
There are also boys who have not yet made it to the extended squad. Nikola Gradinarov will take his first serious steps in men's volleyball with Beroe. The outside hitter was among Bulgaria's key figures in winning the bronze medals at EuroVolley U18 in Porto San Giorgio. In the third-place match against Italy, won 3:0 (25:19, 25:19, 25:23), he finished with 17 points, and a day earlier he scored 16 against Poland in the semi-final.

Gradinarov is not among Blengini's 30, and no one claims he should be there immediately. But after one season in men's volleyball, the picture might look different. The same applies to Peychinov and other young players who will get a chance during the season.
And here comes the question of who will watch them.
Francesco Cadeddu also has a club commitment outside Bulgaria. Andrey Zhekov, however, is currently free, having last been part of Plamen Konstantinov's staff at Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. During the national team summer, he worked alongside Blengini and knows his requirements, and before that, he was also a coach in the Bulgarian championship.
It is not our job to assign positions in the national team. But it would be strange for such a coaching resource to remain unused precisely when Blengini no longer has the opportunity to regularly be in Bulgarian halls. Of course, provided that Zhekov does not find a club.
This summer, Boris Nachev's injury and Dimitar Dobrev's illness already showed how quickly one can move to the next person on the list. And there are two years until Los Angeles, during which form will change, there will be injuries, and new names will emerge. Someone who is not even among the 30 today might be needed in 2028.
One third of Blengini's extended squad is in Bulgaria. Peychinov will develop here, Gradinarov's men's journey begins here, and other players who can knock on the national team's door are also here.
Blengini cannot be in Bulgarian halls every week. Andrey Zhekov can. There are certainly other options, but at the moment, this one seems the most logical and obvious.
And perhaps this is exactly where the answer to the question of who will be Blengini's eyes in Bulgaria should begin.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov