When asked about his talent Captain Simone Giannellithe coach of male volleyball Italy Ferdinando De Giorgi He thanks the stork that brought him, while his Sorriso as a witch lights up as in the advertisements of the toothpaste: “a fortune that was born in Italy”. To then explain: «The hands technique combines physical qualities: I was a small dribbler, he is tall, so on the wall and on the beat it also makes direct points. And then he has a team vision ».
Maybe he made his debut at 16 in Trento in Superlega, it will be that he was a captain’s captain champion of Europe and the world at the age of 25 with the national team. Maybe he has more medals than a general. It will be that as he raises the ball he often pulls out the tongue on the side, as children do when they commit themselves. It will be that we have seen him for a lifetime to sort balls, with fairy hands on the volleyball field, but he really struggles to believe by having him in front of him that Giannelli is still at 29, this face clean by the eternal boy, that the mustache and the beard, well -kept, are unable to camouflage.
Born in Bolzano to a tennis instructor and a dentist, skier as a young man.
Giannelli and Volleyball: who has chosen who?
«Tennis was the sport I liked, alpine skiing what could best be able to me. With Volleyball I started by chance following my older sister and I chose, because from the first workouts they conquered me the dynamics of the team: the fact that by regulation you have to pass the ball and that the gesture of one always depends on that of the other ».
The dribbler sorts the ball between defenders and attackers, does not weigh in the middle and give up the “showcase” of the point?
«It is a very complicated role, perhaps the most judged, because sometimes you cannot play your game because the opponents beat well and whoever receives does not get there. Sometimes if the attackers are not successful, the dribbler is blamed, but I like to be there in the middle, in direct, because it is a role that gives you freedom of expression. I am not interested in appearing, but that my team produces a nice game and is competitive and that my attackers put the ball down ».
Captain in the national team and the Sir Safety Perugia, do you have it or do it?
“It is done. It is a responsibility, rewarding and complex: you have to encourage amalgam between the companions, and between players and staff, to help create the mentality of which you are the manifesto and try to transmit to others, with the example, what you want for the team. It is also about getting dirty your hands: the captain is not only the one who raises the trophies when you win, he is the first who puts his face when there is a problem: he must also know how to use conflicts constructively to always put the good of the team first ».
The CT De Giorgi, after the defeat in the final at the VNL, publicly admitted an error and apologized to you. What does it mean for a team?
“The awareness that everyone can make mistakes and that you have to know how to raise your hand and recognize their mistakes because this helps others to understand: it is true that it is always said, in team sports, that we must improve all together, but each team is made of 1+1+1 … and the more one is performing the more the whole grows”.
When did you understand that volleyball could become a job?
«I still struggle to consider it a job: for me it is a great commitment, a great passion, a great beauty. I still play with the ball as a child with joy in the heart ».
Best player of the event at the 2022 World Championships and the Champions League 2025 (now the best dribbler of the 2025 World Cup), when did he realize he could aspire to us?
“When it happened, I never imagined getting there and being here to talk to her.”
Do you risk losing the size thus reaching highly from young people?
«It can happen, save you to give you goals: mine has always been growing and improving. Obviously in sport it is more beautiful to win than to lose, but on both things you can learn something. Of course, winning the Champions League with Perugia, the trophy I missed, was pure happiness ».
Fears the end of the game?
“If it is traumatic for almost everyone, maybe it will be for me too, but when the time will face the problem.”
What is beyond the field?
«I am grateful to volleyball and I will be for life for what is giving me, but I have always tried to apply myself and learn other things. I am studying nutrition sciences and now I am taken from agriculture: I am making a farm in Umbria, in which I also produce the oil, study to learn all the things you need to manage: cultivation, products, hospitality, sale … “.
Has Perugia inspired it where he has played since 2021?
«The farm was the dream of my family and I like this territory very much; Among other things, the father of my maternal grandmother was from Fossato di Vico. Arriving in Perugia the opportunity was created: in peace, in serenity, in the tranquility of the surroundings of Assisi we found the right place to bring together the family after so many years scattered throughout Italy and for the world “.
Other sportsmen say that there is no time to study. “If you want, you find it ».
What projects do you have for the future?
“Test me a little more on the pitch to see where I can arrive, since I am not yet thirty years old. And then cultivate olive trees and, yes, also to put on a family ».
What matters in life?
“Being a good person in every facet: it will seem a boring response, but it is important from a social, ethical and human point of view”.
(Interview exit on the number 36/25 of Famiglia Cristiana)
