Lausanne, Switzerland, May 25, 2020 - Simone Giannelli may be one of the youngest volleyball stars around, but it's already been more than half a decade since he started orchestrating both his club of Trentino and the Italian national team in their numerous achievements.
Hailing from the South Tyrol city of Bolzano, Giannelli made his first steps in volleyball with the local club of Sudtirol, before moving to Trentino and rising through all the age-group categories of the club.
The 23-year-old setter debuted in Italy's top flight Serie A1 on 27 October 2013 at the age of 17 years, 2 months and 18 days, making him the youngest ever player of Trentino to start in the competition.
Giannelli was called to the National Team in 2015, in time for the European Championship and FIVB World Cup of that year, where he claimed a bronze and a silver respectively.
Within a year he was already creating waves, leading Italy to the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and following that up with another silver at the 2017 FIVB Grand Champions Cup.
Although a major gold medal with Italy eludes him, Giannelli did climb on the highest step of the podium with Trentino in 2018 at the FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship.
Having stayed solely with Trentino throughout his professional career, Giannelli has picked up two Italian championship titles in 2013 and 2015 (named MVP of the competition in the latter) plus Europe's CEV Cup last year.
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