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Perugia’s victory in the men’s club World Cup, a week after Scandicci’s victory in the women’s club world cup (in the final against Conegliano, another Italian team), completed an exceptional 2025 for Italian volleyball. In fact, in September, the women’s and men’s national teams had won the World Cup. In 2025, therefore, all four Volleyball World Cups were won by Italian teams or national teams: something that has never happened before and confirmation of widespread success, which comes from afar.
In these four tournaments, the prizes for the best male and female players went to Italian volleyball players: Alessia Orro and Alessandro Michieletto at the World Cup for national teams, Kate Antropova and Simone Giannelli at those for clubs.
And it’s not just a question of the World Cup. In May, Perugia in the men’s game and Conegliano in the women’s game also won the Champions League, the main European club tournament, which for two years now has only been won by Italian teams (in 2024 Trento and Conegliano did it again, that time beating Milan in the final). The increase in spectators and players for Italian volleyball, both of which have been growing for several years now, are both the cause and effect of these results.
Simone Giannelli, setter and captain of the Italian national team and Perugia, with the Club World Cup (Volleyball World)
In women’s volleyball in particular, it is experiencing its best years. The national team coached by Julio Velasco has an open series of 36 consecutive victories: it has not lost since June 2024 and in between has won two Nations League, the 2024 Olympic gold and the 2025 world championship. Paola Egonu, Alessia Orro, Myriam Sylla and their teammates are considered the new “generation of phenomena”, a nickname that refers to the men’s national team (also coached by Velasco) which won in the nineties three consecutive World Cups.
There are also encouraging signs for the future, because there is an ongoing generational change, which does not give the idea of a team at the end of the cycle, which has finished winning: several young and promising players have already made their debut in the national team, and in the meantime the youth teams are obtaining equally exceptional results. In 2025, Italy also won the women’s Under-21 World Cup, reaching the final in the men’s.
Merit Adigwe, opposite of Conegliano and the national Under 21 team, awarded as best player at the Under 21 World Cup (Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)
In addition to the Champions League, this year the Italian women’s teams also won the CEV Cup, the second most important European competition, and the Challenge Cup, the third. Novara won the CEV Cup, succeeding Chieri who in turn had succeeded Scandicci. The victory of the Challenge Cup is even more significant because Roma won it (in the final against Chieri) in the same season in which they were relegated to Serie A2: it is a confirmation of how competitive the Italian championship is, where a team that finishes second to last still manages to win a European competition.
One of the few problems of the Italian championship in recent years has been that, however competitive and high level it is, in the end Conegliano, the best team in the world, always won. In recent months, however, Conegliano first lost the Italian Super Cup final against Milan, after having won 18 Italian titles in a row between Serie A, Italian Cup and Super Cup, and then the Club World Cup against Scandicci.
They were the only two defeats suffered this season, and Conegliano is still considered the favorite in every tournament (Italian or international) in which it participates. However, there are perhaps two signs that the dominance of the Venetian team is at least contestable, and this could be a good thing for Italian volleyball next year.
– Read also: The success of Italian volleyball comes from afar
