The head coach of the men's national volleyball team, Gianlorenzo Blengini, held a press conference for the media about all current matters concerning the team's preparation and staff before the start of the 2025 season.
“We started last season with the goal of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The idea is to build a new, young team, which is a long process. It's important to include a large number of players to make us a competitive team. This process also involves some intermediate goals, after which is the European Championship in 2026. It is the first that will give quotas for participation in the Olympics in the USA. Qualifying for the Olympic Games is becoming increasingly difficult due to the ranking and new rules. The Olympic Games will not be in Europe, which means that yet another European team will fight for its right to be in Los Angeles,” were the first words of the Italian specialist.
“It is important to continue the process of improvement. Last summer we were in the Nations League without Tsvetan Sokolov, Saganov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Martin Atanasov; many were betting we wouldn't win a single match. We achieved three victories. What is improvement? Four, five victories? Rather not, the important thing is for these young players to grow so they can soon compete with the best teams in Europe. I have faith in these guys that we will succeed together. Our work in the gym during the summer is only one aspect of forming this team. The other is their work and development in their club teams. This is a comprehensive process,” added the coach.
“Over the past ten days, we have been constantly talking with the president of the federation, with Niki (editor's note: Nikolay Ivanov, the coordinator of the national teams). The idea is to keep the current staff with minor changes. We are talking with Andrey Zhekov, who should join the staff to add more quality to the training sessions. You know that Ventsi Simeonov, who works with the U21 team, will also be part of our team. The proposal is for all men's teams to work together in Samokov. My idea is to create a Group B for the national team. This will not be a second team, but it will consist of players who will not travel for the Nations League, but will train according to the same program and will continue to work with us with the idea of developing and raising the level of the championship,” Blengini further said.
“During my tour and meetings with some teams and schools in the province, we saw interesting things. We had the opportunity to speak directly with the coaches and young players, to exchange opinions. We saw good things, some others that need improvement. The idea is not to work only for the first team, but to develop young players. I saw very good specialists at the 'Stoychev-Kaziyski' academy, where a lot of thought is given to young people and there is quality technical work,” the specialist believes.
“A completely realistic goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games, but it is also very difficult. At the last Olympics, three of the four semifinalists were from Europe; in the World Championship final, the contenders were European. With the new ranking and requirements, as well as our place in it, some things seem almost unthinkable. But with a lot of hard work, development, a dose of luck, and hopefully no more of those absences from the national team that we had last summer, we will succeed,” wished Gianlorenzo Blengini.
photos: Nikolay Varadinov
