They return to the world championship salons! Will they play in the final with Poles?

It seems that the consistent work, which takes place in the ranks of the Volleyball of Bulgaria of the Gentlemen, brings better and better results. The Bulgarian Volleyball Men has considerable traditions, headed by the 1980 Olympic runner -up. Now, after a 15 -year break, Bulgarians were again among the eight best teams of the world championships.

World Championships: Bulgaria better than Portugal. The Nikołow brothers enchanted again

Few people remember that in the 21st century the Polish national team met with Bulgaria in the game for the final of the World Cup. It was a tournament played in 2006, in Japan, and ultimately Poles dealt with the Bulgarian rival, losing only in the game about gold with Brazil.

For Bulgaria, that tournament was the last when they reached the medal zone. Bulgaria finally reached for bronze medals. In 2009, Bulgarians were also repeated at the European Championships. Soon, however, the times of crisis came. Even the World Cup tournament organized at home (together with Italy) did not help. The 2018 games were won by Poles (this time better in the final from Brazil), and Bulgarians finished playing in places 9-12. It was even worse in 2022, then it was the number 20.

Since 2023, however, the team runs Gianlorenzo Blengini. The Italian trainer, who led Italy in 2015-21, reached with her, among others After the silver medal of the Olympic tournament in Rio de Janeiro (2016). Blengini got a serious task to be performed, namely promotion to the Games in Los Angeles (2028). Bulgarians have not participated in the Olympic competition since 2012. In London they took 4th place at the time.

Who knows, perhaps the breakthrough tournament will be the World Championships 2025. Bulgarians after winning all three matches of the group stage, successively: with Germany 3: 0, Slovenia 3: 2 and Chile 3: 0, on Monday (i.e. September 22) they played 3: 0 Portugal in the 1/8 final.

The duo Aleksandar and Simeon Nikołow appeared great, once again. The first is the host, the second player. They both can enchant on the pitch. They are two unquestioned leaders of the Blengini team. Alexandar scored 19 points against Portugal – and we are talking only about a three -hundred clash. Simeon showed even such, extremely effective actions.

However, there are also other representatives, such as Aleks Groupow, the team captain, a solid middle playing every day in the colors of Bogdanka Luk Lublin – Polish champion. It seems that coach Blengini has built an interesting team that has a really interesting future ahead of him.

Are Bulgarians able to reach for the medal of the World Cup? It is certainly important that Bulgaria will avoid both Poles and Italians in its part. And having such a perspective, and at the same time eliminated, e.g. French and Japanese, it is not excluded at all that Bulgarians, for example, repeat the result from 2006, i.e. bronze of the World Cup. A great surprise would not even be participation in the final, although this is definitely an optimistic version, assuming an equal form of the mentioned brothers and the rest of the band. And as you know, youth has its own rights and the argument is not always repetition in it, especially at the time of growing, tournament pressure.

On the other hand, if the final performed by the Bulgarians actually took place, the script with a match against Poles is not excluded (assuming a positive script also for the Polish team). And that would certainly be a volleyball feast and an interesting clash of at least a few generations under the net.

First, however, the quarter -finals, and there will be Americans for Bulgaria.

An impressive balance of the Polish volleyball team at the World Cup. Sack of medals!

In the medal classification of all time, looking at the world championships, Polish volleyballers are fourth. Poland reached for three gold medals (1974, 2014, 2018) and two silver rings (2006, 2022).

As you can see, apart from the memorable success of the Hubert Wagner team – later Olympic champions (1976) – they stood on the podium in the World Cup events in the 21st century. Recent years are extremely successful, since 2014 it has not happened that Poles were missing in the final of the event. In addition, it is worth noting that since the team trains under the baton of Nikola Grbcia, Poles from the most important events come back with the medal each time. Last example? The Golden League of Nations 2025, where in the final tournament in China Polish volleyballers did not lose a single set in any of the three meetings.

In addition, it is worth remembering that in the case of the Polish volleyball team, we are talking about: leaders of the FIVB world ranking, current European champions (2023), world runners -up (2022) and Olympic runners -up (2024). These are really special times for men’s volleyball in Poland. And what is also worth emphasizing, it began in total with … the 2006 World Championships. At that time, the team led by Raul Lozano decided to remind the world by climbing the party’s podium from the highest representative shelf. It was the first medal of the World Cup since Wagner.