The fans were waiting to see who was to fill the void left by coach Paolo Tofoli, and sport director Cappelli did not take long to find an answer: the new head coach will be Paolo Montagnani. The 48-year-old from Livorno is one of the best coaches around, he has a lot of experience (most of them in the top division) as well as a stint in Japan. Before embarking on a coaching career, he was a player at the highest level, starting in 1986 in the A2 with the club of his home town and hanging up the boots in 2005 at Pineto. Among his various achievements, there is the World Club Championships and the Cup Winners Cup won in 1992-1993 with Milan. His coaching career began as Gulinelli’s assistant at Latina (A1) in 2007-08. The following year, he was named head coach at Pineto (A1). Taranto was his next stop before earning promotion from the A2 to the elite with Padova, which he then led to seventh in its first season in the top division. In 2012-13, he went to Japan where he helped the Suntory Sunbirds win the Kurowashiki tournament, the most important trophy in Japanese volleyball. He came back to Italy with Città di Castello in 2014-15 before moving to Molfetta last season. Because of family problems, he was forced to put an early end to this collaboration in the south in February, when the team was in sixth place.

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