October 1, 1989 – The beginning of Italy’s golden run through a phenomenal generation

The 16th edition of the Volleyball European Championships was extraordinary in many ways. We rather focus on the men’s competition since in 1989 the men’s and women’s tournaments did take place in different countries for the very first time with the only exception being the inaugural events held in 1948 and 1949, respectively. The men’s championship held in Sweden coincided with the first major success of a truly golden generation from Italy – which many regard as ‘The Volleyball Team of the XX Century’, even though an elusive Olympic gold medal is missing from their collection.

Italy had not made the podium of the men’s European Championship since finishing third in 1948. However, the country had already reached the international elite in 1978 at a home World Championship where Italy finished second and through their bronze-medal winning performance at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Moreover, Italian clubs had become a force to reckon with in the European Cups since the early 80s but what started in Stockholm in 1989 was an unprecedented series of successes for the players coached by Argentine-born Julio Velasco, who would soon acquire a legendary status.

Team Italy did have an almost impeccable run in the pool stage of the competition, where they beat Bulgaria, West Germany, and East Germany all by the same score (3-1), hosts Sweden (3-0), before surprisingly losing to France 2-3. Italy still finished at the top of their pool to progress to the semis where they conceded only 12 points in three sets to an emerging Dutch team that year after year would have become their closest and fiercest competitor. The first major sensation materialised in the other semi-final where hosts Sweden beat the Soviet Union 3-2 (17-15 in the fifth set) to make sure that the Soviets would not win European gold for the first time since 1963!

Sweden seemed likely to take it from there as they won the first set of the gold medal match (16-14), but Italy regrouped to sweep three in a row and a spike by Andrea Zorzi sealed the deal for the ‘Azzurri’ to mark October 1, 1989, as a truly historic day for Italian Volleyball and sport as well! Earlier the very same day, in a truly unexpected and strange turn of events, the Netherlands had beaten the Soviet Union 3-0 – thus the USSR did not only fail to retain their title and extend their winning streak, but they even failed to medal for the first time since 1955 when they had finished fourth as well.

Italy’s triumph in Stockholm was the beginning of a golden era – which included multiple international triumphs, such as three World Championship titles in a row between 1990 and 1998 and Olympic silver in 1996. Zorzi still admits: “Winning European gold in Stockholm in 1989 was a joy that I still find difficult to put into words.” Zorzi recounted in an interview many years later that ‘wild’ celebrations ensued, with a bit too much alcohol being poured… What helped trigger this real phenomenon was certainly the arrival of Velasco at the helm of the team – he was the first full-time head coach and innovative in introducing video sessions to study the opponents and producing reviews of each individual player’s performances based on detailed statistics. It all sounds evident today – but that was not the case back in 1989 when Italy’s golden run started on October 1 on the final day of the only European Championship ever held in Sweden.

If we go through the list of the players composing that group, we find names that even the younger readers shall be familiar with: Andrea Anastasi, Lorenzo Bernardi, Marco Bracci, Luca Cantagalli, Ferdinando De Giorgi, Andrea Gardini, Andrea Lucchetta, Stefano Margutti, Roberto Masciarelli, Gilberto Passani, Paolo Tofoli, and Andrea Zorzi. Many of these are now elite coaches, transferring their experiences and knowledge of the game to the current and next generation of volleyball stars!