Bulgaria men's national volleyball team

Bulgaria men's national volleyball team
The Bulgaria men's national volleyball team represents the country in international competitions and friendly matches. It is controlled by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation.
History
The team's achievements include winning the Balkan Championships in 1980, Runners-Up (1970) and Third Place (1949, 1952, 1986, 2006) at the World Championship. At the European Championships Bulgaria has one Runners-Up (1951) and four Third Place (1955, 1981, 1983, 2009) 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 (2007) and five Semi-Final appearances in the World League (1994, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013). 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
1972 Munich — 4th place
1980 Moscow — Silver medal
Gunchev, Stoyanov, Zlatanov, Dimitrov, Tsanov, Dimitrov, Petkov, Todorov, Simeonov, Valtchev, Iliev, Angelov.
2012 London — 4th place
G. Bratoev, Skrimov, Dimitrov, V. Bratoev, V. Nikolov, Yosifov, Salparov, Todorov, Aleksiev, Penchev, N. Nikolov, Sokolov. Head coach: Naydenov
World Championship
1949 Czechoslovakia — Bronze medal
1952 Soviet Union — Bronze medal
1962 Soviet Union — 4th place
1970 Bulgaria — Silver medal
1986 France — Bronze medal
2006 Japan — Bronze medal
2010 Italy — 7th place
2014 Poland — 13th place
2018 Italy/Bulgaria — 11th place
2022 Poland/Slovenia — 20th place
World Cup
1969 East Germany — 4th place
2007 Japan — Bronze medal
European Championship
1950 Bulgaria — 4th place
1951 France — Silver medal
1955 Romania — Bronze medal
1958 Czechoslovakia — 4th place
1963 Romania — 4th place
1981 Bulgaria — Bronze medal
1983 East Germany — Bronze medal
1995 Greece — 4th place
2009 Turkey — Bronze medal
2011 Austria/Czech Republic — 6th place
2013 Denmark/Poland — 4th place
2015 Bulgaria/Italy — 4th place
2017 Poland — 6th place
2019 France/Slovenia/Belgium/Netherlands — 11th place
2021 Poland/Czech Republic/Estonia/Finland — 11th place
World League
1994 — 4th place
1995 — 5th place
1996 — 8th place
1997 — 6th place
1998 Milan — 7th place
2003 Madrid — 5th place
2004 Rome — 4th place
2005 Belgrade — 5th place
2006 Moscow — 4th place
2007 Katowice — 5th place
2008 Rio de Janeiro — 7th place
2009 Belgrade — 10th place
2010 Córdoba — 7th place
2011 Gdańsk — 5th place
2012 Sofia — 4th place
2013 Mar del Plata — 4th place
2014 Florence — 8th place
2015 Rio de Janeiro — 10th place
2016 Kraków — 11th place
2017 Curitiba — 9th place
Nations League
2018 Lille — 11th place
2019 Chicago — 12th place
2021 Rimini — 15th place
2022 Bologna — 14th place
2023 Gdańsk — 15th place
European Games
2015 Baku — Silver medal
Universiade
1961 Sofia — Silver medal
1977 Sofia — Gold medal
Team
Current squad
The following is the Bulgaria roster in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship.
Head coach: Plamen Konstantinov
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.
See also
Bulgaria men's team
Bulgaria men's U19 team
Bulgaria men's U21 team
Bulgaria men's U23 team
Bulgaria women's team
References
External links
Official website
FIVB profile
National men's volleyball teams
Volleyball
Volleyball in Bulgaria
Men's sport in Bulgaria