After the Italian women claimed the world title in Thailand, the Italian men followed suit and triumphed at the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship, defending their crown from three years earlier. Bulgaria reached their first World Championship final in 55 years and took silver, while Poland lined up on the podium with bronze. The tournament was held in the Philippines from September 12 to 28.
The first men’s World Championship under the new biennial cycle and with an expanded 32-team format proved to be a spectacular celebration of the sport. With record-breaking audiences across broadcast and digital platforms, the tournament showcased volleyball’s global strength, commercial appeal, and ever-growing popularity. The championship delivered some of the most watched live sports broadcasts of the year. The final between Bulgaria and Italy drew an average live audience of 2.8 million viewers on RAI 2, ranking among the top five live sports broadcasts in Italy outside football. In Bulgaria, the final made history as the first event ever simulcast across all four main national TV stations. Meanwhile, in Poland, the semifinal between Poland and Italy reached 1.9 million viewers on Polsat’s free-to-air channel – almost a quarter of the national TV audience at that time.
VBTV, Volleyball World’s global OTT service, added to this success with more than 5 million views and 180 million watch minutes across the competition. The Italy v Bulgaria final became the most watched match on VBTV with 220,000 streams, while the USA v Bulgaria quarterfinal attracted 207,000 views. On social media, the championship proved one of the most engaging volleyball events to date. Across Volleyball World’s global channels, more than 129,500 new followers joined during the pool phase through to the quarterfinals.
The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight round-robin pools of four for the first phase of the competition. Despite being the heavy favorites to win Pool F, Italy suffered a five-set upset at the hands of Belgium and qualified for the eighthfinals as pool runners-up, after also shutting out Algeria and Ukraine. In the eighthfinals, Italy defeated Pool C winners Argentina in straight sets, and in the quarterfinals, they got back at Belgium with another emphatic sweep. The Italians continued their perfect run through the playoffs in the semifinals with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-23) shutout of the world’s number one team Poland. In front of an official number of 16,429 spectators at the final in Pasay City, Italy overpowered the young team of Bulgaria in four sets, 3-1 (25-21, 25-17, 17-25, 25-10), to claim the crown. It was their second consecutive and fifth overall world title, after their triumphs in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2022. They also won silver in 1978.
Until the final, Bulgaria were the only undefeated team at Philippines 2025. In Pool E, they upset two higher ranked opponents, Germany in straight sets and Slovenia in five sets, and topped the pool with a shutout of Chile. They cruised on to a straight-set win over Portugal in the eighthfinals and, in the quarterfinals, they mounted a spectacular comeback from two sets down to knock out the United States and progress to the semis. They secured passage to their first World Championship final since 1970 when they hosted the event, with a 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22) semifinal victory over Czechia. Their 21-year-old outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov emerged as the best scorer of the World Championship with a total of 173 points to his name, or as many as 67 points clear on top of the ranking. Despite losing the final, the Lions received a national heroes welcome upon their return back home to Bulgaria. The southern European country has now collected six medals in the history of the World Championships – two silvers and four bronzes.
Poland, the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking for many years, cruised through the first phase of Philippines 2025 with three-point victories over Romania, Qatar and the Netherlands in Pool B, before disposing of Canada in a four-set eighthfinal and of Turkiye in a quarterfinal sweep. Their first and only defeat of the tournament came in the semifinal against Italy, but they bounced back with a 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21) win over Czechia for the bronze, their first ever. Previously, they had three world titles and two silver medals on their record, as one of the most decorated teams in the history of the World Championships.
Czechia, USA, Turkiye, Belgium, Iran, Argentina, Serbia, Slovenia, Tunisia, the Netherlands, Canada, Finland, Portugal, Brazil, France, the Philippines, Cuba, Germany, Qatar, Japan, Ukraine, Egypt, Colombia, Korea, Libya, Romania, China, Chile and Algeria, in that order, took the places from fourth to 32nd in the final standings.
Italy’s 23-year-old outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto claimed the Most Valuable Player (MVP) nomination. He also led a line-up of seven well-deserving players named on the symbolic World Championship Dream Team, featuring setter Simone Giannelli (Italy), opposite Yuri Romano (Italy), outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov (Bulgaria), middle blockers Aleks Grozdanov (Bulgaria) and Jakub Kochanowski (Poland), and libero Fabio Balaso (Italy).
Click here for the official FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship website.
