Spectacle, strong emotions but also concrete results of the work carried out by the Clubs and their youth sectors. The 2024/25 Scudetto Final, which saw the epilogue in Game 4 of the challenge between Itas Trentino and Cucine Lube Civitanova, was the third Final with more Italians on the field since 2004/05, the year in which the possibility for teams to play simultaneously with 4 athletes of foreign nationality was introduced.
Among the ranks of Trento were Daniele Lavia, Gabriele Laurenzano, Alessandro Michieletto, Riccardo Sbertoli and Kamil Rychlicki, the latter with a Luxembourg passport but recently called up to the Italian national team by CT Ferdinando De Giorgi. For Lube, in the 6+1 of Game 4, Fabio Balaso, Mattia Boninfante, Mattia Bottolo and Giovanni Gargiulo.
Nine, therefore, the Italian athletes included in the starting sixes of the race that proclaimed Trento as Champion of Italy.
A figure, that relating to the 2024/25 Final, which demonstrates once again the great effort made by the Serie A Clubs in recent years: important investments in the youth sectors that have given and are giving their fruits, with 8 Italians out of the 9 already mentioned who have trained in the youth teams of the Serie A teams.
An activity that not only allowed to raise the level of the Italian athletes present in the SuperLega, but also able to bring benefits to the Italian National Team, the reigning World Champion. All 9 athletes present in Game 4 of the Scudetto Finals have in fact been included in the list of 30 called up by De Giorgi for the next Volleyball Nations League. Furthermore, the finalists of this edition, Itas Trentino and Cucine Lube Civitanova are the two clubs that will provide the largest number of Italian athletes for the next VNL.
Massimo Righi (President of Lega Pallavolo Serie A): “The data relating to the 9 Italian athletes on the field in Game 4 of the Scudetto Finals, the stage par excellence of Italian volleyball and beyond, demonstrates once again the fundamental value of the important investments destined for their youth teams by the Serie A Clubs. The Azzurri seen on the field yesterday are at the top of international volleyball and it is thanks to these athletes that the National Team has been reaping great and deserved success for years. This demonstrates that a winning National Team cannot exist without the fundamental technical and economic contribution of our Clubs in the training and growth of Italian players. An indispensable contribution to ensure that our movement remains at the top of world volleyball”.
