What awaits Italy’s coach after Hungary’s national team collapse?

Sándor Nyári believes Hungary’s women’s volleyball team’s European Championship campaign should not be presented as a success story. The young national team lost all five of its matches, finished 23rd, second from last, and failed to advance from its group. Hungary can also give up hope of taking part in the 2027 World Championship.

Nyári rejects the suggestion that Hungary should have conserved energy in its opening matches against Poland and Turkey because those opponents were considered unbeatable. “A coach can never tell players not to fight or to give up a match,” he says. Even if Hungary went to Istanbul hoping for an upset, he says the players had to give everything.

He is less convinced that Alessandro Chiappini should continue as head coach. “Since we can lose five matches even if you or I sit on the bench, I do not necessarily see a reason to continue employing the Italian coach,” Nyári says, before turning to what he describes as the available Hungarian alternatives.

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A coach can never tell players not to fight or to give up a match.

Nyári names László Hollósy, Sándor Kántor, Gábor Tóth and Zoltán Dávid. He points to Hollósy’s success in turning an unfancied team into German champions in the Bundesliga, Kántor’s experience coaching youth players in Italy and Tóth’s work as an assistant coach with Sweden’s national team. His point is that Hungarian volleyball does have capable domestic professionals.

Nyári also questions why a youth-level team was taken to a senior European Championship. He says it would be important to know who recommended that decision, or whether Chiappini made it himself. He acknowledges that foreign coaches are fashionable, but argues that communication in the players’ native language would be especially valuable in the locker room and during timeouts.

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Since we can lose five matches even if you or I sit on the bench, I do not necessarily see a reason to continue employing the Italian coach.