Julio Velasco
Julio Velasco (born February 9, 1952 in La Plata, Argentina) is an Argentinian professional volleyball coach and Athletic administrator. Velasco in 2005 added at 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 name | Julio Velasco | ||||||
Nationality | Argentine Italian (since 1992) | ||||||
Born | La Plata, Argentina | February 9, 1952||||||
Hometown | La Plata, Argentina | ||||||
Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||
Coaching information | |||||||
|
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 1981-1983.
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 Italy men's national team leading them to unprecedented successes. His first piece of silverware 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 top the world, leading them to the win of 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 of world champions[3].
During his tenure as Italy's coach Velasco won two more European Championships, another World Championships and five World League in addition to other minor trophies liked, FIVB World Grand Champions Cup, Mediterranean Games, FIVB World Cup and World Super Challenge. Velasco in the last years of his presence in Italy to great achievement and the first silver medal history FIPAV in 1996 Summer Olympics.
After the 1996 Summer Olympics, where the Italians won silver, he switched to the Italy women's team 1996 to 1997. Julio Velasco left the Italy national men’s Team in 1996 to coach the Italian national women’s Team, whom he coached 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. 2008 year selected Spain men's national team and achieve to 2009 European Volleyball League. In 2011, Velasco was signed as the head coach of the Iran men's national team. He became coach Argentina men's national team before his contract expires with Iranian national team on 1 March 2014 with winner two Asian Championship. This change of the team was due to request of the people and country president of Argentina, and was approved by the Iranian volleyball confederation because of Iranians respect for their coach.[4] He led the team to championship 2015 Pan American Games. Velasco for 2018/2019 was appointed head coach Modena Volley.[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:
- 4 Serie A1: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982
Modena:
- 4 SuperLega: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
- 3 Coppe Italia: 1986, 1988, 1989
- 1 Coppa delle Coppe: 1986
- 1 Supercoppa italia: 2018
Italy men's national team:
- 2 FIVB World Championship: 1990, 1994
- 3 European Volleyball Championship: 1989, 1993, 1995
- Runner-up 1: 1991
- 5 FIVB World League: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995
- Runner-up 1: 1996
- 3rd place 1: 1993
- 1 FIVB World Cup: 1995
- 1 Summer Olympics: Silver medal 1996
- 1 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup: 1993
- 1 World Top Four FIVB: 1994
- 1 World Super Six FIVB: 1996
Italy women's national team
- 1 Mediterranean Games: 1997
Spain men's national team
- 1 Mediterranean Games: Runner-up 2009
- 2 Men's European Volleyball League: Runner-up 2009, 2010
Iran men's national team
- 2 Asian Men's Volleyball Championship: 2011, 2013
Argentina men's national team
- 1 Pan American Games: 2015
Individual awards
- 1990 FIVB World Championship - Best Coach
- 1991 Medal of Merit Sport Organization Italy
- 1993 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup - Best Coach
- 1995 FIVB World Cup - Best Coach
- 2000 Konex Award - Technical Director
- 2012 Società Italiana Medici Manager - Technical Award
- 2014 Coach of the Year in Iran
About him
He has discussed coaching with football mastermind Pep Guardiola multiple times. when he lived in Italy, Pep 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
- Work team like Julio Velasco / Forbes
- 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.
- "Con loro oltre la rete" [With Them Beyond the Net]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 1990-10-30. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
- "Julio Velasco will be the Argentine Seniors Men's coach". FIVB. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
- Julio Velasco brand new Modena Volley coach
- JULIO VELASCO / Italian National Olympic Committee
- FIVB - Julio Velasco