Lausanne, Switzerland, December 6, 2017 – Italy coach Gianlorenzo Blengini has been nominated for the Italy Coach of the Year Award at the Gazzetta Sports Awards.
Blengini led Lube Civitanova to the Italian Championship and Italian Cup earlier in the year, but stepped down in April to take on the Italy coach role full time.
Lube Civitanova will now compete for their third trophy of the season at the FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship that is taking place in Poland from December 12-17.
The Gazzetta Sports Awards are organised by Italy’s leading sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport and are one of the highlights of the end of year sports awards.
Blengini is up against two football coaches for the Award– Napoli’s Maurizio Sarri and Atalanta’s GianPiero Gasperini – which will be announced at a star-studded gala evening in Milan on December 11.
In 2016 Blengini’s Italy team won the Team of the Year Award after they won silver at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, silver at the FIVB World Cup and bronze at the European Championship.
Next year Blengini will aim to lead Italy to gold on their home court at the Italy-Bulgaria 2018, FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship. Following last week’s draw they will take on Argentina, Japan, Belgium, Slovenia and the Dominican Republic in the pool stages.