Three countries, one vision: Volleyball without borders (Volleyball senza confini)

Something truly unprecedented happened on Friday, when an Italian club performing in what many regard as the best and most competitive national league in Europe joined forces with an Austrian club. VERONA Volley and TSV HARTBERG Volleyball are breaking new ground with a cooperation agreement, which enables expertise to pass from the Italian SuperLega Credem Banca – the cream of the crop in international Volleyball – to the team that finished third in the last edition of Austria’s powerfusion Volley League Men. Furthermore, the two parties are partnering with the VolleyAcademy Stoytchev-Kaziyski, a talent factory of the Volleyball superpower Bulgaria, within the scope of the same project.  

The focus of this international cooperation will lie on the joint development of young talents throughout the different stages of their careers. Merging and utilising the know-how of coaches and supervisors from the three partners in the volleyball, athletics and statistics department will be at the centre of the collaboration. Furthermore, an overarching business platform for sponsors and companies will be developed/created to ensure mutual economic success. 

Coordinating the joint activities is GoRaZo Sports Developer Gottfried Rath-Zobernig, former Sports Director of the Austrian Volleyball Federation: “This cooperation marks a new era for Volleyball. It has managed to combine similarities and strengths of all the partners to create new opportunities especially for young players. To be able to develop alongside a top club like VERONA Volley will set TSV HARTBERG Volleyball and the VolleyAcademy up for success and I am confident that this huge opportunity will be used to its full potential. Furthering Austrian Volleyball and creating new perspectives for its talents is still very dear to me and to bring three countries together in one precisely tailored cooperation will benefit the sport and the economic partners as well,” he says. 

TSV HARTBERG Volleyball 

Established in 1985 and with more than 200 active members, the club from the eastern section of Styria celebrated its greatest success last season by placing third in the powerfusion Volley League Men. What is more, with an average age of just 22 years and one of the largest proportions of homegrown players in the league, it is an ideal partner for VERONA Volley and VolleyAcademy. TSV HARTBERG Volleyball are two-time winners of the Austrian national cup and have featured as many as six times in the CEV European Cups. 

Manfried Schuller, President TSV HARTBERG Volleyball: “The cooperation offers the ideal opportunity to bring standards that have proven themselves at the national level into an international comparison. We strive to develop step by step and now have the opportunity to learn from the best. Our club also sees itself as a hub for social and economic networking beyond sport.” 

Markus Hirczy, head coach TSV HARTBERG Volleyball: “I am very proud to be part of this project. Just as our players are constantly developing, we also want to develop structurally. This cooperation is ideal for quality assurance for our athletes. The development of our young top talent is at the centre of our efforts and of this project. Personally, I am really looking forward to working together with the coaches from VERONA Volley and the VolleyAcademy.” 

VERONA Volley 

The Italian club from Verona was established in 2021 and last season reached the quarterfinals of the Italian top league SuperLega Credem Banca and of the Del Monte Coppa Italia as well. Their head coach Radostin Stoytchev is widely known in Austria, as he celebrated the championship title and cup title as a setter with hotVolleys VIENNA in the 1996/1997 season. VERONA Volley usually welcomes some 4,500 fans to their home matches and with Slovenia’s Rok Mozic and Malian Noumory Keita, two of their players were among the top ten scorers at the end of last season’s Italian national league. 

Radostin Stoytchev, head coach of VERONA Volley: “For me it is a dream come true and a special day. We have united three parties with the same purpose, which is to accompany young athletes up to achieving a high level of performance in Volleyball. We have managed to realise a great project that starts now but that I believe will have a long life. It will help us to grow at the corporate level but also to improve our know-how as coaches. We collaborate daily and the goals we want to achieve are clear. In a short time, we aim to produce important athletes just like Mozic and Keita. So, we have to work hard to achieve that through the joint work we set out to do.” 

VolleyAcademy Stoytchev-Kaziyski

The third partner of the project is VolleyAcademy Stoytchev-Kaziyski established by Radostin Stoytchev and Matey Kaziyski, two of the most renowned names in the world of Volleyball, back in 2015. The academy is based in Sofia and its main goal is to train young players aged 8-18. Nearly 200 young talents, boys and girls, train in nine teams with seven coaches. Each year, Volleyball summer camps are organised on the shores of the Black Sea, together with VERONA Volley players, thus attracting athletes from all over Europe and even the USA. For the last two seasons, the Academy has had a men’s team of homegrown players only, competing in the second division of the National Volleyball League in Bulgaria. Apart from volleyball, the organisation is keen on teaching players how to become versatile and strong characters.
 
Martina Karagiozova, Deputy President: “The project is an extension of our main goal to develop young players by giving them opportunities to play international Volleyball. We consider it as a milestone in the VolleyAcademy’s growth path. The cooperation with VERONA Volley and TSV HARTBERG Volleyball will bring a one-time opportunity for coaches to exchange ideas and expertise, creating common training camps and tournaments. We believe this will give some unique opportunities for our players to pursue their volleyball careers.”