Jump to content
Search

Bulgaria men's national volleyball team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bulgaria
AssociationBulgarian Volleyball Federation
ConfederationCEV
Head coachGianlorenzo Blengini
Uniforms
Home
Away
Third
Summer Olympics
Appearances8 (First in 1964)
Best resultSilver (1980)
World Championship
Appearances20 (First in 1949)
Best resultSilver (1970, 2025)
World Cup
Appearances4 (First in 1965)
Best resultBronze (2007)
European Championship
Appearances28 (First in 1950)
Best resultSilver (1951)
www.volleyball.bg (in Bulgarian)
Honours
Medal record
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1980 Moscow Team
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 1970 Bulgaria
Silver medal – second place 2025 Philippines
Bronze medal – third place 1949 Czechoslovakia
Bronze medal – third place 1952 Soviet Union
Bronze medal – third place 1986 France
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Japan
World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Japan
European Championship
Silver medal – second place 1951 Paris
Bronze medal – third place 1955 Bucharest
Bronze medal – third place 1981 Varna
Bronze medal – third place 1983 East Berlin
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Turkey
European Games
Silver medal – second place 2015 Baku Team
The Bulgaria National Team in 2014
Bulgaria Defeating Powerful Rivals Serbia in 2011
The Bulgaria National Team at the 2011 FIVB World League Defeating Asian Giants Japan
Bulgaria and Serbia Match in 2014

The Bulgaria men's national volleyball team represents the country in international competitions and friendly matches. The national team is controlled by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, the governing body for volleyball in Bulgaria.

History

[edit]

The team's achievements include winning the Balkan Championships in 1980, Runners-Up (1970, 2025) and Third Place (1949, 1952, 1986, 2006) at the World Championship. At the European Championships Bulgaria has one Runners-Up (1951) and four Third Place (1955, 1981, 1983, 2009) finishes. Bulgaria has also achieved Runners-Up at the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The team has one third place at the World Cup (2007) and five Semi-Final appearances in the World League (1994, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013). The team's most significant recent results include earning a silver medal at the 2025 World Championship, Third Place at the 2006 World Championship, the 2007 World Cup and 2009 European Championship as well as achieving Runners-Up at the first European Games in 2015.

Bulgaria first took part in the World League in 1994. During the debut season in the tournament, the team went all the way to the semi-finals; led by players like Lubo Ganev, Dimo Tonev and Martin Stoev. In the next four editions, Bulgaria took part but did not manage to surpass its prior performance by reaching fifth in 1995, eight in 1996, sixth in 1997, and seventh in 1998. Under the guidance of Milorad Kijac, the new wave of players including Teodor Salparov, Danial Mihaylov, etc. mixed well with the more experienced Evgeni Ivanov, Plamen Konstantinov, Nikolay Ivanov, Vladimir Nikolov, Hristo Tsvetanov to result in the fifth-place rank in 2003. The next year, once again under Kijac, the team played some impressive games and succeeded to tie its best performance of reaching the Semi-Finals. The team included more players from the Under-21 team that the previous year won a medal at the World Championships, such as Matey Kaziyski and Milushev. In 2005 with a new coach, Martin Stoev, the team finished as the fifth rank, followed by another tied best-ever performance of reaching the Semi-Finals in 2006, and another fifth rank in 2007. In 2011 Bulgaria qualified for first time in the Final Round after four years, they finished as the fifth rank. The 2012 Final Round was held in the newly opened Armeets Arena in Sofia, and the host reached the Semi-Finals once again.

Statistics

[edit]

Olympic Games

[edit]

World Championship

[edit]

World Cup

[edit]

European Championship

[edit]

World League

[edit]

Nations League

[edit]

European Games

[edit]

Universiade

[edit]

Team

[edit]

Current squad

[edit]

The following players made the final roster for the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship.[1]

Head coach: Italy Gianlorenzo Blengini

Captain: Aleks Grozdanov

No. Name Date of birth Height Weight Spike Block 2025–26 club
1 Simeon Nikolov (2006-11-24)24 November 2006 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) – – – Russia Lokomotiv Novosibirsk
3 Iliya Petkov (1996-10-10)10 October 1996 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) – – – Italy Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina
4 Martin Atanasov (1996-09-27)27 September 1996 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) – – – Italy Vero Volley Monza
5 Boris Nachev (2004-04-22)22 April 2004 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) – – – Italy Pallavolo Padova
8 Asparuh Asparuhov (2000-07-28)28 July 2000 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) – – – Poland Ślepsk Suwałki
11 Aleks Grozdanov (1998-03-28)28 March 1998 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) – – – Poland LUK Lublin
12 Georgi Tatarov (2003-05-10)10 May 2003 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) – – – Italy Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina
15 Rusi Zhelev (2001-12-21)21 December 2001 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) – – – Italy Pallavolo Macerata
18 Venislav Antov (2004-04-06)6 April 2004 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) – – – France Tourcoing Lille
20 Stoil Palev (2003-05-21)21 May 2003 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) – – – Bulgaria Levski Sofia
21 Dimitar Dobrev (2008-07-17)17 July 2008 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) – – – Bulgaria Levski Sofia
22 Damyan Kolev (2002-01-11)11 January 2002 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) – – – Bulgaria Levski Sofia
23 Aleksandar Nikolov (2003-11-30)30 November 2003 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) – – – Italy Cucine Lube Civitanova
29 Preslav Petkov (2003-10-28)28 October 2003 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) – – – Italy Folgore Massa

Head coaches

[edit]
  • Bulgaria 1949–1950 – Valentin Ankov
  • Bulgaria 1951–1952 – Dimitar Elenkov
  • Bulgaria 1952–1955 – Georgi Krastev
  • Bulgaria 1957–1958 – Dimitar Elenkov
  • Bulgaria 1964–1971 – Dimitar Gigov
  • Bulgaria 1971–1972 – Todor Simov
  • Bulgaria 1979–1980 – Todor Piperkov
  • Bulgaria 1980–1982 – Tsvetan Pavlov
  • Bulgaria 1982–1983 – Vasil Simov
  • Bulgaria 1984–1986 – Bogdan Kyuchukov
  • Bulgaria 1991–1992 – Georgi Vasilev
  • Bulgaria 1992–1994 – Stoyan Stoev
  • Bulgaria 1994–1994 – Brunko Iliev
  • Bulgaria 1994–1996 – Bogdan Kyuchukov
  • Bulgaria 1996–1997 – Stefan Sokolov
  • Bulgaria 1998–1999 – Georgi Vasilev
  • Bulgaria 1999–2000 – Brunko Iliev
  • Bulgaria 2000–2002 – Hristo Iliev
  • Bulgaria 2002–2003 – Assen Galabinov
  • Serbia 2003–2004 – Milorad Kijac
  • Bulgaria 2004–2005 – Brunko Iliev
  • Bulgaria 2005–2008 – Martin Stoev
  • Italy 2009–2010 – Silvano Prandi
  • Bulgaria 2010–2012 – Radostin Stoychev
  • Bulgaria 2012–2012 – Nayden Naydenov
  • Italy 2012–2014 – Camillo Placì
  • Bulgaria 2014–2019 – Plamen Konstantinov
  • Italy 2019–2022 – Silvano Prandi
  • Bulgaria 2022–2023 – Nikolay Jeliazkov
  • Bulgaria 2023 - Plamen Konstantinov
  • Italy 2024–present – Gianlorenzo Blengini

Kit providers

[edit]

The table below shows the history of kit providers for the Bulgaria national volleyball team.

Period Kit provider
2002–2019 Asics
2019–2025 Erreà
2025– Zeus

Sponsorship

[edit]

The main sponsor of the national team is the Bulgarian betting company efbet, while Mikasa and Lidl are secondary sponsors.[2]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Bulgaria 2025 MWCH". Volleyball World. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  2. ^ "Българска Федерация Волейбол". bvf.bg. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
[edit]
National teams
Men
Women
League Competitions
Men
Women
Cup Competitions
Men
Women
Categories
Others
Players
Men's national volleyball teams of Europe (CEV)
BVA (Sv)
EEVZA (Pl)
MEVZA (Sv)
NEVZA (Sv)
WEVZA (Sv)
SCA (Sv)
Defunct
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bulgaria_men%27s_national_volleyball_team&oldid=1315541187"
Bulgaria men's national volleyball team
Add topic
Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.