Piazza at the helm as Iran embarks on ‘new project’
Italian head coach Roberto Piazza took charge of the Iranian national volleyball team’s training camp on Saturday ahead of the two major international events.
Having endured a dire run of results over the past two years, Iran will be looking for a fresh start under Piazza at the upcoming Volleyball Nations League in June, before heading to the Philippines for the Men’s World Championship in September.
“I’m so excited and thrilled to finally be here. I want to start a new project with Iran and work hard toward our ultimate goal of qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” Piazza said upon arrival in Tehran on Thursday alongside his fellow-Italian number two Tomaso Totolo.
Piazza, 57, signed a two-year contract with the Iranian Volleyball Federation in January, with the option of a two-year extension.
The Iranian team’s preparation began under assistant coach Mohammadreza Tondravan in Tehran in late March, but the Italian could only join up with his players after seeing out the remainder of his club duty with Powervolley Milano in the Italian top flight.
The former Dutch national team boss named Iran’s provisional 30-man squad for the VNL campaign last week, before the list is reduced to 14 players for the first week of action – starting June 11 in Rio de Janeiro.
Opposite-spiker Amin Esmaeilnejad, who had a prolific campaign with Skra Belchatow in the Polish PlusLiga, will again be the man to watch in the rejuvenated Iranian squad, while outside-hitter Pouria Hosseinkhanzadeh and setter Javad Karimi are also expected to play a pivotal role for the team after impressive seasons with Lube in the Italian Serie A and Brazil’s Minas Tênis Clube, respectively.
Iran will begin its VNL campaign with formidable tests against volleyball powerhouses Brazil and USA, followed by games against Slovenia – VNL semifinalist in June – and Ukraine.
Iran will visit Belgrade, Serbia, for Week 2 of the preliminaries, starting with an encounter against the host on June 25.
Piazza’s side will then play Argentina and Germany before the Italian reunites with his former team, the Netherlands, in the Serbian capital on June 29.
The third and the final week of the preliminary phase in Gdańsk, Poland, will see Iran square off against European powerhouses Poland (July 16) and France (July 19), who met in the Olympic final last year, either side of an all-Asian battle against China.
Iran will hope to be in contention for a place in the VNL Finals when going head-to-head with Bulgaria in their final Week 3 game on July 20.
The top eight teams of the preliminary-round table will progress to the VNL Finals – starting with the quarterfinals on July 30 in the Chinese city of Ningbo.
Some easier contests are on the cards for Piazza’s men at the World Championship group stage, where Iran is pitted against the Philippines as well as African teams Egypt and Tunisia in Pool A.
Iran will take on reigning African champion Egypt in their opening game on September 14, and then faces Tunisia two days later.
The Asian powerhouse will conclude the group fixtures against the host on September 18, with the top two in the pool table advancing to the round of 16.