“Every gold comes unexpectedly”

Very tired but overjoyed, Simone Giannelli and his World Cup teammates landed in Rome on Monday evening. "We celebrated the World Cup title thoroughly and truly. I can't and don't want to say more at this point," joked the Bolzano native, who was named the World Cup's best player after the 3-1 final victory against Bulgaria.

Giannelli and his team spent almost a whole month in the Orient. First, they attended test matches in Tokyo, then the World Cup in the Philippines. "We didn't think about World Cup gold beforehand, nor did we talk about it. We tried to prepare as best we could and worked hard over the summer," Giannelli explains on the phone with "Dolomiten."

Happy and exhausted Now he feels drained, somehow empty. But he's gradually realizing what was achieved in Manila: "That's true. After the 2-3 defeat to Belgium, we absolutely had to beat Ukraine to reach the round of 16. We looked each other in the eye, and everyone approached the game with even more energy and passion. We were inspired by the women's World Cup title," Giannelli reports. The Bolzano native played brilliantly from the knockout round onwards and was the driving force. "It's an honor and a pleasure for me to lead my teammates. We are a true team; even in our hour of success, we thought of our teammates Daniele Lavia and Giovanni Sanguinetti, who couldn't celebrate with us but had been with us throughout the entire World Cup preparations."

Giannelli explains what ultimately came down to this: "The 3-0 win against Belgium in the quarterfinals gave us a lot of confidence. Against Poland, we always made the right decisions, played with a certain ease, and demonstrated strong technical skills. That made the Poles nervous; we were more prepared than they were. All our players gave their all. In the final against Bulgaria, we played solidly and only had a small slump in the third set. But every gold medal is unexpected. Proving yourself at the highest level is probably even more difficult."

Vacation is a foreign word Switching off or even taking a vacation are foreign concepts to the Bolzano prodigy: "Unfortunately, there's no time to breathe in top-level volleyball. You have to sit down and find a solution. We players have been saying that for years. The fact is, I'll start strength training on Thursday (tomorrow, ed.). Ball training will continue next week. The first matches are coming up soon in Perugia." The championship begins on October 21st.

Giannelli's next few days will look like this: "I'll dedicate half a day to strength training, and the rest of the time I'll spend with my girlfriend Selly and my dog Lily. I'm grateful for that. I haven't seen them in many weeks because none of my family was with us in the Philippines. We'll do simple things, like go for walks, eat well, and indulge in some quality time. We'll go on vacation another time. There's simply no time for that right now."

Giannelli has been traveling the world for a decade, saying: "I love traveling, I enjoy other cultures, and I'm open to everything. But I also need peace and quiet and solitude with my loved ones." He'll certainly be putting up with all of this for a few more years, as the only thing missing from his trophy collection is Olympic gold. Giannelli: "There are many important games before Los Angeles. I'm always thinking about the next match."

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“Every gold comes unexpectedly”

Captain Simone Giannelli and his teammates have done it again: World Champions 2022, World Champions 2025! But this gold shines even brighter after the "Olympic disappointment" (fourth place last year in Paris).

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