Roberto Piazza, an experienced 48-year-old Italian coach, has signed to become the mentor of the Qatar national volleyball team.
Piazza, who has been coaching famed Greek Olympiacos this season, and the Qatar Volleyball Association are said to have inked the deal on Saturday, with the latter trying to become a powerhouse in the region and Arab world.
Piazza replaced Argentine Juan Manuel Cichello, who is following his Olympic Games ambition and now assisting Raul Lozano in Iran.
Former volleyball player Piazza has been coaching since 1990, working most of his career as assistant to former Italian Head Coach Daniele Bagnoli, who had been coaching QVA League defending champions Al Rayyan Club before quitting the team this season.
Under Bagnoli, Piazza was a part of the Treviso thinktank which helped the team win the CEV Champions League three times.
In 2007-08, he also went along with Bagnoli to coach Dinamo Moscow, who bagged a grand double by winning the Russian League and Russian Cup.
At the end of the 2008-09 season, Sisley Treviso hired him for the first time as the Head Coach. His most memorable as the Head Coach was in 2010-11 when he guided Sisley Treviso to bag the CEV Cup.
It is worth mentioning that under Cichello Qatar produced good results including finishing sixth at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and an all-time high of fourth at the Asian Championship in Iran last year.
The last competitive outing for Qatar under the 40-year-old was the GCC Championship in September in Riyadh, where they finished as runners-up to Bahrain.
Factfile
Name Roberto Piazza (48 yrs)
Nationality Italy
Date of birth: 29 January, 1968
Volleyball
Role: Coach
Current team: Olympiacos (Greece)
To join: Qatar national team
Career (Youth)
1985-1987 Volleyball Parma
Clubs
1987-1989 Parma
1989-1990 Piacenza
Coaching career
1990-1996 Volleyball Parma vice
1996-2007 Sisley Volley vice
2007-2009 Dinamo Moscow vice
2009-2012 Sisley Volley
2012- 2015 PV Cuneo
2016 – Olympiacos
Achievements
Player
Cup Winners’ Cup : 2
Parma: 1987-1988 , 1988-1989
Assistant Coach
Domestic competitions
Serie A1 : 9
Parma: 1991-1992 , 1992-1993
Treviso: 1997-1998 , 1998-1999 , 2000-2001 , 2002-2003 , 2003-2004 , 2004-2005 , 2006-2007
Italian Cups : 5
Parma: 1991-1992
Treviso: 1999-2000 , 2003-2004 , 2004-2005 , 2006-2007
Italian Super Cup : 7
Treviso: 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007
Russian championship: 1
Dinamo Moscow: 2007-2008
Russian Cup: 1
Dinamo Moscow: 2008-2009
International competitions
Champions League : 3
Treviso: 1998-1999 , 1999-2000 , 2005-2006
Cups CEV / Challenge Cup : 4
Parma: 1991-1992 , 1994-1995
Treviso: 1997-1998 , 2002-2003
European Super Cup : 2
Parma: 1990
Treviso: 1999
Coach
International Competitions
CEV Cup : 1
Treviso: 2010-2011