Bulgaria men's national volleyball team


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

History

The team's achievements include winning the Balkan Championships in 1980, Runners-Up and Third Place at the World Championship. At the European Championships Bulgaria has one Runners-Up and four Third Place 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 and five Semi-Final appearances in the World League. The team's most significant recent results include earning 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, Martin Stoev, etc. 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

Olympic Games

Current squad

The following is the Bulgarian roster in the 2019 Volleyball Men's Nations League.
Head coach: Silvano Prandi
No.NameDate of birthHeightWeightSpikeBlock2018–19 club
21 10 1987 Neftohimik
13 2 1995 Rennes
11 12 1994 Pirin Razlog
27 09 1996 Chaumont
31 8 1990 Dinamo Leningrad
11 12 1994 Bolívar
13 4 1986 Neftohimik
9 1 1990 Vibo Valentia
10 6 1993 Maliye Milli Pyango
21 10 1987 JTEKT Stings
23 04 1995 Diobrudzha 07
16 8 1982 Neftohimik
1 9 1989 Neftohimik
14 03 1987
1722 05 1992 ONIKO
1829 7 1986 Sporting Lisboa
1931 12 1989 VC Zenit-Kazan
27 09 1996 Greenyard Maaseik
2111 2 1991 VC Hebar
08 09 1996 VC CSKA Sofia
02 04 1992 Neftohimik
19 06 1997 Rainbow Warriors
21 05 1998 VC CSKA Sofia
16 12 1997 Cherno more BASK

Tsvetan Sokolov missed out on the first 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League and the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship as he went on a knee surgery. However, he had recovered and participated in his club tournaments.

Head coaches

Kit providers

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

Sponsorship

The main sponsor of the national team is the Bulgarian betting company Efbet, while Asics, Mikasa and Lidl are secondary sponsors.