Poland defend European crown, on to LA 2028!

Poland defended their CEV Men’s Volleyball European Championship title and booked their spot at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games men’s volleyball event. On Saturday evening, in front of well over 11 thousand fans in the stands at the Unipol Forum in Assago in the outskirts of Milan, Italy, they outlasted reigning back-to-back Olympic champions France in the CEV Enel EuroVolley 2026 Men final. Earlier in the day, Finland beat Slovenia in the bronze medal game. All four of these teams will also compete at next year’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup – Poland as hosts, France, Finland and Slovenia as the three best placed teams of the European Championship.

Poland, the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, produced a 3-1 (31-29, 25-19, 20-25, 25-16) victory over France in the gold medal showdown, a remake of the Paris 2024 Olympic final, and completed their EuroVolley campaign on a 7-1 win-loss record, with the only setback suffered against co-hosts Bulgaria in a pool match in Sofia.

Poland registered their fourth consecutive EuroVolley podium and second back-to-back gold. It was their third continental crown in history, after 2009 and 2023. Their record also includes five silvers and four bronzes. Earlier this year, Poland also won the Volleyball Nations League.

They will return to the Olympic stage as silver medalists of the last edition at Paris 2024, when they made the Olympic podium for the second time in history, after their Montreal 1976 title. Overall, it will be Poland’s 12^th appearance in Olympic men’s volleyball.

Reigning Olympic champions France will have to look for other ways to make their way to LA 2028, via next year’s World Cup, or via the World Ranking, where they currently stand eighth. They picked up their fifth EuroVolley silver in history. Their collection also features two bronzes and the 2015 continental crown.

Finland achieved a historic success by earning their first-ever EuroVolley podium. In the third-place game, they mastered a 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 29-27) upset of the world’s number six team, bronze medalists of this year’s VNL and of the last European Championship Slovenia, and beat their previous EuroVolley high, the fourth place in 2007.

In Friday’s semifinals, Poland mastered a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-18) sweep of their encounter with Slovenia, while France did not allow the Finns yet another surprise and defeated them by 3-1 (25-17, 18-25, 25-18, 25-15).

Poland’s 33-year-old outside hitter Wilfredo Leon was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the European Championship. He also made the EuroVolley Dream Team, along with setter Antoine Brizard (France), opposite Theo Faure (France), outside hitter Nooa Marttila (Finland), middle blockers Bartlomiej Lemanski (Poland) and Szymon Jakubiszak (Poland), and libero Jakub Popiwczak (Poland).

CEV Men's Volleyball European Championship: schedule and results

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