Ferdinando De Giorgi, known as ‘Fefè’, will remain at the helm of the Italian men’s national volleyball team until the end of the 2025-2026 season. This is what was decided today by the Federvolley Federal Council meeting in Cagliari. After the extraordinary results obtained in recent years, among which the 2022 world title, the 2021 European gold and the European silver last September stand out, President Giuseppe Manfredi announced that he had reached the agreement to extend the adventure of the Apulian coach on the blue bench until 2026.
De Giorgi will already be busy in the next few weeks obtaining Olympic qualification for Paris 2024. Other objectives will be the defense of the world title in 2025 while in 2026 he will be busy in front of the Italian public for the European Championships event which will award the winning team a pass to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
“For my part, there was a great desire to continue this path together, based on planning and young people. In recent years, a working group has been created with athletes who have great room for improvement and the idea of being able to continue an adventure , so far full of satisfactions, is very gratifying to me.” This is what was commented by Ferdinando De Giorgi confirmed as technical commissioner of the Italian men’s national volleyball team. ‘Fefè’, 62 years old, from Lecce after an extraordinary career as a player (330 matches with the blue shirt), has been on the Italian bench since 2021. In his trophy cabinet, four world championship gold medals, three as a player (1990, 1994 and 1998) and one as a coach (2022).
“I thank you for the trust placed, we will continue to work with the utmost commitment to obtain the best possible results and always transmit positive values”, said De Giorgi who will soon gather the team to aim for qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Simone Giannelli and teammates will begin the journey towards obtaining the Olympic pass at the end of May with the first of the three blocks of matches of the Volleyball Nations League which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Azzurri’s opponents are Germany, Iran, Japan and the Brazilians. The five remaining places will be assigned to the best Nations not yet qualified at the end of the three blocks of matches, i.e. on 24 June. The finals will take place from 27 to 30 June in Lodz, Poland.