Slovenia men's national volleyball team

Slovenia
Association	Volleyball Federation of Slovenia (OZS)
Confederation	CEV
Head coach	Gheorghe Crețu
FIVB ranking	5 (as of 10 July 2024)
Uniforms
Summer Olympics
Appearances	1 (First in 2024)
Best result	Quarterfinals (2024)
World Championship
Appearances	2 (First in 2018)
Best result	Fourth place (2022)
European Championship
Appearances	10 (First in 2001)
Best result	Runners-up (2015, 2019, 2021)
	www.odbojka.si (in Slovene)
Medal record
Challenger Cup
European Championship
European League

The Slovenia men's national volleyball team represents Slovenia in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, and is governed by the Volleyball Federation of Slovenia. The team made its debut at major tournaments in 2001, when it competed at the European Volleyball Championship. Between 2015 and 2021, Slovenia reached the final of the European Championship three times and finished as runners-up on all three occasions after losing to France, Serbia and Italy, respectively.

As of August 2024, Slovenia is ranked fourth in the FIVB World Rankings.

History

The Slovenia national team played its first official match on 24 April 1992, under the leadership of Viktor Krevsel.^[1]^[2] They make their first appearance at the European Volleyball Championship in 2001, where they finished in 12th place.^[1]

In March 2015, Andrea Giani was announced as new head coach of the Slovenian national team.^[3] In October 2015, Slovenia won its first medal at the 2015 European Volleyball Championships after losing in the final against France (3–0). Tine Urnaut won one of the individual player awards for the best outside spiker.^[4]

In January 2017, Giani resigned as coach,^[5] and in March 2017, Slobodan Kovač took over the team.^[6] In May 2017, Slovenia qualified for the 2018 edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, their first ever World Championship appearance.^[7]

In January 2019, the Volleyball Federation of Slovenia and Kovač both agreed to part ways and terminate the contract.^[8] He was replaced by Alberto Giuliani.^[9] In 2019, Slovenia hosted the 2019 edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup at home in Ljubljana. The team reached the final, where they defeated Cuba 3–0 and earned the right to participate in the 2020 Nations League, replacing Portugal; however, the competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Slovenia qualified for the 2021 edition instead.^[10] At their Nations League debut in Rimini, Italy, the team reached the final round as the only challenger team, where they lost 3–0 both to Poland and France in the semifinals and in the third place match, respectively.^[11]^[12]

At the 2019 European Championship, Slovenia was one of the four co-hosts of the tournament.^[13] The team reached the final again, where they lost 3–1 to Serbia, clinching their second silver medal in four years.^[14] Two years later, at the 2021 European Championship, Slovenia once again reached the final. After defeating hosts Poland in the semifinals, they lost the final 3–2 to Italy to claim their third silver medal.^[15] Gregor Ropret was selected in the All Star Team as the best setter through fan votes.^[16] Giuliani decided to step down as Slovenia head coach in September 2021,^[17] and was replaced by Mark Lebedew from February 2022.^[18] After failing to reach the top 8 in the 2022 Nations League, he was sacked and replaced by Gheorghe Crețu in August 2022, just two weeks before the start of the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, hosted by Slovenia and Poland.^[19]^[20]

Competitive record

Key

Champions Runners-up Third place As host

Olympic Games

Olympic Games record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL	Squad
2024	Quarterfinals	5th place	4	3	1	10	6	Squad

World Championship

World Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL	Squad
2018	Second round	12th place	8	4	4	17	16	Squad
2022	Semifinals	4th place	7	4	3	15	11	Squad
2025	Qualified

European Championship

European Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL	Squad
2001	Group stage	12th place	5	0	5	3	15	Squad
2007	Group stage	16th place	3	0	3	2	9	Squad
2009	Group stage	15th place	3	0	3	1	9	Squad
2011	Playoffs	9th place	4	2	2	9	8	Squad
2013	Group stage	13th place	3	1	2	5	7	Squad
2015	Final	Silver medalists	7	4	3	14	12	Squad
2017	Quarterfinals	8th place	5	2	3	6	9	Squad
2019	Final	Silver medalists	9	6	3	20	13	Squad
2021	Final	Silver medalists	9	6	3	21	11	Squad
2023	Semifinals	Bronze medalists	9	8	1	25	9	Squad

World League

World League record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL
2016	G3 Final	25th place	8	7	1	22	6
2017	G2 Final	13th place	11	10	1	32	10

Nations League

Nations League record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL	Squad
2021	Semifinals	4th place	17	12	5	40	24	Squad
2022	Preliminary round	10th place	12	5	7	18	24	Squad
2023	Quarterfinals	7th place	13	8	5	27	20	Squad
2024	Semifinals	4th place	15	12	3	37	22	Squad

Challenger Cup

Challenger Cup record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL
2019	Final	Champions	4	4	0	12	2

European League

European League record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	SW	SL
2007	Semifinals	4th place	14	9	5	34	25
2011	Semifinals	Bronze medalists	14	10	4	33	19
2014	Semifinals	Bronze medalists	10	8	2	26	9
2015	Final	Champions	12	12	0	36	5
2018	Pool stage	12th place	6	1	5	5	17

Team

Current squad

The following is Slovenia's roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[21]

Head coach: Gheorghe Crețu

Head coaches

List of Slovenia's national team head coaches
Name^[22]	From	To	Achievements
Viktor Krevsel	1992
Luka Lobnik	1992
Viktor Krevsel	1993	1996
Vladimir Janković	1996	1997
Gregor Hribar	1997	2005
Iztok Kšela	2005	2008
Gregor Hribar	2008	2010
Veselin Vuković	2010	2012
Luka Slabe	2012	2015
Andrea Giani	2015	2017	2015 EC
Slobodan Kovač	2017	2019
Alberto Giuliani	2019	2021	2019 CC 2019 EC 2021 EC
Mark Lebedew	2022
Gheorghe Crețu	2022		2023 EC