“This team is incredible.
But they did not have the regularity in the performance”.
The Italian Andrea Giani, new coach of French volleyball players, aims to maintain the Olympic champions at the highest level in the long term, he explains in an interview with AFP.
The Modena coach replaced Bernardinho ten days ago, who resigned from his post at the head of the France team for family reasons.
“It was very easy to find the motivation.
The French team is fantastic, I know some players very well, whom I was able to have in the clubs where I trained, or where I still train", explains Giani, whose Modena team is still in the running to win the Italian championship (semi-final against Perugia).
Legend of Italian volleyball as a player (two silver medals at the Olympic Games, triple world champion, and quadruple European champion) the almost 52-year-old Neapolitan (he will celebrate them on April 22) has switched to a career as a coach during which he notably led Milan when Trévor Clevenot was playing there, and Modena since 2019, with Jénia Grebennikov last season, and Earvin Ngapeth this year.
This knowledge of part of the team facilitated his decision, when he had to break his commitment for the year 2022 with the German selection.
I Communiqué I
Andrea Giani named new coach of the 🇫🇷Olympic champions until the Paris 2024 Games.
➡️ https://t.co/KOYeW6h3Ia pic.twitter.com/gJSQvFOHFP
— FFvolley (@FFvolley) March 29, 2022
“Over the last ten years, France has always had the possibility of finishing in one of the first three places in each competition.
This team is amazing.
But they did not have the regularity in the performance, notes the new coach.
We have to help the players to stay at the best level, all the time.
It is not easy.
Andrea Giani gives some keys to his way of managing a team.
“Day-to-day management is important.
Communication with players is important.
I want to be open in my relationship with the players, but we have rules and it's important to follow them all together, to respect them, ”he remarks.
And to continue: “I must first know the players, that I learn the culture of sport in France.
The players also have to get to know me.
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To carry out his mission at the head of the Blues until 2024 (the first two deadlines will be the League of Nations in June and July, then the World Cup, at the end of August and the beginning of September), Andrea Giani surrounded himself with Loïc Geiler , coach in Fréjus and who will be one of his assistants after having been that of the Frenchman Cédric Enard, coach of Estonia.
His other assistant will be Roberto Ciamarra, who assists him in Modena.