Julio Velasco

Julio Velasco (born February 9, 1952 in La Plata, Argentina) is an Argentinian professional volleyball coach and sport administrator. Velasco in 2005 was added to the Volleyball Hall of Fame. He's had Italian citizenship since 1992.[1]

Julio Velasco
Velasco in a press conference in Azadi Indoor Stadium in 2016
Personal information
Full nameJulio Velasco
NationalityArgentine
Italian (since 1992)
Born (1952-02-09) February 9, 1952
La Plata, Argentina
HometownLa Plata, Argentina
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Coaching information
Previous teams coached
YearsTeams
1979–1981
1981–1983
1983–1985
1985–1989
1989–1996
1996–1997
2001–2002
2002–2004
2004–2006
2006–2008
2008–2010
2011–2014
2014–2018
2018–2019		 Ferro Carril Oeste
Argentina (assistant)
Tre Valli Jesi
Modena
Italy
Italy women
Czech Republic
Copra Piacenza
Modena
Gabeca Montichiari
Spain
Iran
Argentina
Modena

Career

Player

Julio Velasco began playing volleyball at the age of 15 for National University of La Plata Club.

Coach

Velasco became assistant coach on the Argentina national men's team from 1981 to 1983.

In 1983 he was invited to coach for Tre Valli Jesi in Italy, staying until 1985. He coached at Panini Modena 1985-1989 and led them to four Italian national championships in 1986-1989.

In 1989 he was appointed head coach of the Italy men's national team leading them to unprecedented successes. His first trophy with the Italian team was at the 1989 Men's European Volleyball Championship in Sweden, where they topped their preliminary group with only one loss and went through the knockout stage up to the final where they beat 3-1 the host side[2] to win their first ever official tournament.

But it was in 1990 that Velasco helped Italy to reach the top the world, leading them to win the World Championship in Brazil: in the knockout stage Italy beat Argentina 3-0 in the quarterfinals, the host Brazil 3-2 in the semifinals and eventually Cuba 3-1 in the championship final to win their first ever title as world champions.[3]

During his tenure as Italy's coach Velasco won two more European Championships, another World Championship and five World Leagues, in addition to other minor trophies like the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup, Mediterranean Games, FIVB World Cup and World Super Challenge. Velasco also took the Italian men’s team to win its first silver medal history FIPAV in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

After the 1996 Summer Olympics, where the Italians won silver, he switched to the Italy women's team, from 1996 to 1997, coaching them to a Gold Medal at the Mediterranean Games. He coached the Czech Republic men's national team in 2001. He returned to Italy to coach the Copra Piacenza club in 2002. In 2008 he was selected to coach the Spain men's national team, winning with them the 2009 European Volleyball League. In 2011, Velasco was signed as the head coach of the Iran men's national team. He became coach of the Argentina men's national team before his contract with the Iranian national team expired on 1 March 2014, after winning two Asian Championships. This change of teams was due to the request of the people and the president of Argentina, and was approved by the Iranian volleyball confederation because of Iranians’ respect for their coach.[4] He led the Argentinian team to win the 2015 Pan American Games. Velasco was appointed head coach of Modena Volley for the 2018/2019 season.[5]

Administrator

During the season 1998-99 Velasco was General Director of UEFA Cup winner S.S. Lazio, and in 2000 he moved to Massimo Moratti's Inter Milan.

Honours

Ferro:

Modena:

Italy men's national team:

Italy women's national team

Spain men's national team

Iran men's national team

Argentina men's national team

Individual awards

Orders
  • CONI: Golden Palm of Technical Merit: Palma d'oro al Merito Tecnico: 2018[6]

About him

He has discussed coaching with football mastermind Pep Guardiola multiple times. When he lived in Italy, Guardiola once travelled hundreds of kilometres so that he could meet Argentinian volleyball coach Julio Velasco personally, simply because he had seen him in a TV interview and wanted to learn from him.[7]

References
  1. Work team like Julio Velasco / Forbes
  2. Sannucci, Corrado (1989-10-03). "E il magico Julio portò la scienza" […and the Magical Julio Brought In the Science]. la Repubblica (in Italian). Rome. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  3. "Con loro oltre la rete" [With Them Beyond the Net]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 1990-10-30. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  4. "Julio Velasco will be the Argentine Seniors Men's coach". FIVB. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  5. Julio Velasco brand new Modena Volley coach
  6. JULIO VELASCO / Italian National Olympic Committee
  7. FIVB - Julio Velasco


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