Modena Volley


Modena Volley is a professional volleyball team based in Modena, Italy. It has played in the highest level of the Italian Volleyball League without interruption since 1968. It is the most successful Italian club, having won the national league twelve times and the national cup as well. The club is one of the most prominent and prestigious in Europe too, having won thirteen European trophies including four CEV Champions League. Currently sponsorship deals include Randstad and New Holland Agriculture, but the main sponsor of the club is Azimut.

Achievements

The club was founded in 1966 by Benito and Giuseppe Panini, owners of Edizioni Panini publishing house, and was named Gruppo Sportivo Panini. The club, trained by Franco Anderlini, started from Serie C and achieved the Serie A in 1968, taking only two seasons. Since then it has never been relegated to lower divisions.
It took only another season to achieve the first Italian League, in 1969/70: the victory was led by the Czechoslovak superstar Josef Musil. With Anderlini as head coach Modena won three championships, but in 1975/76 he resigned and was replaced by Polish Edward Skorek who acted as player-coach, leading Panini to another national title. By the end of the 1970s Modena clinched four Italian leagues, two Italian cups and its first European trophy, the 1979/80 CEV Cup Winners' Cup, with the Brazilian Bernard Rajzman and the Italian Francesco Dall'Olio as leaders of the team.
In the 1980s Modena had even greater successes: managed by Julio Velasco the team gained four consecutive Italian leagues and many national and international cups. In 1989 Velasco was appointed head of the Italian national team, leaving Modena where he was replaced by Vladimir Jankovic. Even without Velasco, Modena became European champion winning the 1989/90 CEV Champions League.
The team entered the 1990s with financial difficulties and its best players left Modena moving to better funded clubs. The Panini era was coming to an end and in 1993 the club changed ownership for the first time, being taken over by Giovanni Vandelli, a ceramic industrialist who renamed the club as Daytona Volley. Vandelli signed Daniele Bagnoli as head coach and brought back Bertoli, Cantagalli and Vullo.
Modena soon regained its competitiveness and in five seasons it won twelve trophies, including two Italian Leagues and two CEV Champions Leagues. The 1996/97 season could be regarded as one of the most successful in the club's long history, having achieved the Italian League, the Italian Cup and the Champions League in the same year. The line-up of this legendary season was structured by the setter Fabio Vullo, the opposite hitter Juan Cuminetti, the middle-blockers Bas van de Goor and Andrea Giani, the outside hitters Marco Bracci and Luca Cantagalli: one of the best European teams ever.
1996 was also the year of Giuseppe Panini's death, co-founder and for many years the highly respected president of the club. The municipal administration of Modena entitled the local arena, home of the volleyball team, to his memory as Palazzo dello Sport Giuseppe Panini, commonly referred to as PalaPanini by supporters.
In 1997/98, trained by Francesco Dall'Olio, Modena won his third consecutive CEV Champions League.
After an unsuccessful comeback of Daniele Bagnoli, Vandelli's club won its last Italian league in 2001/02 with Angelo Lorenzetti as coach.
Vandelli's last trophy was the 2003/04 CEV Cup, then in 2005 he sold the club to a consortium composed of Antonio Barone, Catia Pedrini and Giuliano Grani. The name was changed to Pallavolo Modena and Barone became the new president.
During 2008 Barone e Pedrini left the club leaving it in the hands of Grani and new partner Pietro Peia. In 2012 even Grani took a step back, leaving Peia as the sole owner. Under the Barone-Grani-Peia ownership Modena won only one trophy with the 2007/08 CEV Challenge Cup, despite great investments to sign notable players like Ángel Dennis, Murilo Endres and Matthew Anderson, and many successive famous coaches like Julio Velasco, Andrea Giani, Silvano Prandi, Daniele Bagnoli and Angelo Lorenzetti.
In May 2013 a new consortium composed of Gino Gibertini, Antonio Panini, Catia Pedrini, Dino Piacentini and Peter Zehentleitner acquired the club. Both Gibertini and Piacentini were Panini's players in the seventies. The club's name was changed to Modena Volley Punto Zero with Gibertini as president and Lorenzetti being confirmed as head coach.
The coexistence between many partners proved to be difficult and after few months Gibertini, Panini and Zehentleitner left the consortium. Catia Pedrini was then appointed president of the club with Piacentini in the role of vice-president.
For the 2014–15 season the club's name has been modified to Modena Volley with a new logo.
On 11 January 2015, the team won its first title in 7 years, by defeating Trentino Volley in the final of Italian Volleyball Cup.
For the 2015–2016 season Modena decides to strengthen the team by adding the Brazilian middle-blocker Lucas Saatkamp, and replacing Uroš Kovačević with his Serbian compatriot Miloš Nikić. Since October 2015, the club sets a major sponsorship deal with DHL. During the season, the club enlarged his honours with the victories of Italian Supercup in October and the Italian Volleyball Cup in February, by defeating Trentino Volley in both matches. Above all, the main success of the season has been the Italian national title after 14 years, by defeating SIR Safety Perugia in the final by 3–0.
For the 2016–2017 season, there are many changes: the main sponsor DHL and coach Angelo Lorenzetti leave the club, moreover the Brazilians "magic duo" Bruno Rezende and Lucas Saatkamp return to their home country. Nevertheless, Modena reinforces the roster by hiring two of the best middle blockers in the world: Maxwell Holt and Kevin Le Roux. The expert Argentinian setter Santiago Orduna takes place of Bruninho and the Serbian spiker Nemanja Petric is promoted as team Captain. Since September 2016, the new main sponsor of the club is the Italian asset management company Azimut Holding.

Former names

Notable players

The stars indicate Volleyball Hall of Fame inductees.
1980–1983 Andrea Anastasi
2012–2013 Michele Baranowicz
1985–1989
2005–2007		 Davide Bellini
1985–1990 Lorenzo Bernardi
1983–1990
1993–1994		 Franco Bertoli
2000–2003 Vigor Bovolenta
1994–1998 Marco Bracci
1980–1990
1993–1998
2000–2004		 Luca Cantagalli
1972–1981
1984–1986
1994–1995		 Francesco Dall'Olio
1986–1987 Ferdinando De Giorgi
2001–2003 Andrea Gardini
1996–2008 Andrea Giani
1968–1978 Rodolfo Giovenzana
1981–1990
1998–2000		 Andrea Lucchetta
2005–2006 Luigi Mastrangelo
1968–1980 Paolo Montorsi
1968–1975 Andrea Nannini
1990–1994
2000–2006		 Damiano Pippi
1980–1984 Stefano Recine
1996–1997
2005–2009		 Andrea Sartoretti
1968–1981 Stefano Sibani
2003–2005
2008–2009
2017		 Dragan Travica
1986–1990
1994–2000		 Fabio Vullo
2007–2012/ Ángel Dennis

1982–1986 Esteban Martinez
1990–1993 Hugo Conte
1993–2000 Juan Cuminetti
1990–1993 Waldo Kantor
1984–1986
1987–1988		 Raúl Quiroga
2010–2012 Yury Berezhko
1998–2002 Aleksey Kazakov
1997–1998 Evgeni Mitkov
1993–1995 Ruslan Olikhver
2000–2004 Roman Yakovlev
1994–2000 Bas van de Goor
2000–2002 Guido Görtzen
2008–2011 Wytze Kooistra
2009–2012 Dick Kooy
2013–2014 Zbigniew Bartman
1975–1977 Edward Skorek
2013–2014 Lukas Kampa
1968–1970 Josef Musil
2004–2005 Jan Štokr
1978–1980 Bernard Rajzman
2003–2007 Luiz Felipe Fonteles
1992–1994 Maurício Lima
2002–2003
2004–2005		 Dante Amaral
2005–2008 Ricardo Garcia
2006–2007 Nalbert Bitencourt
2006–2009 Murilo Endres
2006–2009 Sidão
2007–2008 André Heller
2007–2008 André Nascimento
2011
2014–2016
2017–2018		 Bruno Rezende
2015–2018 Earvin Ngapeth
2011–2012 Viktor Yosifov
2011–2012
2019–Present		 Matt Anderson
2000–2004 Lloy Ball
2008–2009 David Lee
2016–Present Maxwell Holt
2018–Present Micah Christenson
1988–1990 Doug Partie
2012–2015 Uroš Kovačević

Retired numbers

Head coaches

The table below shows the history of kit providers for the Modena team.
PeriodKit provider
1985–1989Best Company
1989–2003Asics
2003–2005A-Line
2005–2017Macron
2017–currentErreà

Sponsorship

Primary sponsors include: main sponsors like Azimut Holding other sponsors: Randstad Holding and 38 different companies.