One of the promising Bulgarian volleyball players is already in Italy. The 15-year-old opposite hitter Jason Barutov is part of the youth structure of elite Verona, his father Ivaylo Barutov, a former Bulgarian national team player, confirmed to Volleyweek.bg.
The young volleyball player passed trials, after which the club decided to keep him. This summer, he had the opportunity to train with the first team for 20 days.
"He is very pleased and happy, which is the most important thing," Ivaylo Barutov told Volleyweek.bg. According to him, the people involved in the project helped Jason's move to Italy (we remind you that one of the club's owners is Dimitar Rachev, and last season Radoslav Stoychev was the coach there). The president of Slavia, Ivan Seferinov, also provided assistance, giving the young volleyball player the opportunity to continue his career in the Apennines.
Barutov was born in 2010 and plays as an opposite hitter. In the official CEV data, he is listed with a height of 202 cm, but according to his father, he is 204 cm, and in the last two years, he has been part of several national teams of Bulgaria. In 2025, he was part of the U16 team. This year he was included in Bulgaria's registration for the U18 European Championship, and in the summer, he received a call-up for the U17 training camp before the World Championship in Doha, but he did not make it into the final 14 for the tournament.

Barutov is not the only young Bulgarian national in the academy of a club from the Italian SuperLega. For the second year, Daniel Tanev, son of former women's national team coach Antonina Zetova, has been in the structure of Piacenza. This season, Tanev is part of the club's formation that participates in Serie B and the U19 championship.
Thus, two young Bulgarian volleyball players are gaining experience in the systems of clubs from the Italian elite - Tanev in Piacenza and Barutov in Verona.

photos: personal archive