De Gennaro stars as the MVP in Italy’s third VNL victory

The longest-tenured member of the Italian national team in the Volleyball Nations League 2025, star libero Monica De Gennaro was recognized on Monday as the Most Valuable Player in the undefeated campaign that took the Europeans to win their third title in the tournament on Sunday, in Łódź, Poland.

Also awarded as the tournament’s best libero and a member of its Dream Team, the 38-year-old De Gennaro has been representing her country since 2006 and was, for the first time in her career, recognized as the best player of an international tournament.

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A pillar in the Italian national team for the last two decades, the libero, nicknamed ‘Moki’, helped them win gold at the Paris Olympics, in 2024, three VNL titles (2022, 2024 and 2025), and triumph at the 2011 FIVB World Cup and the 2021 European Championship, besides having earned two medals (silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022) at the FIVB Volleyball World Championship.

A four-time Olympian, she was selected as the best libero of last year’s Paris Games and earned that same award in numerous international and club competitions, such as the VNL, the World Championship, the FIVB World Grand Prix, the FIVB Club World Championship and the CEV Champions League.

De Gennaro also became the first libero and the second Italian player to receive the prestigious award in the women's VNL, joining longtime national team teammate and star opposite Paola Egonu, who was selected in 2022 and 2024, in the first two Italian titles.

After indicating she could retire from the Italian national team after helping them take gold in Paris last year, De Gennaro returned to the team in 2025 with the same appetite as before. She was on the court in 12 of the 15 matches played by the Italians.

De Gennaro was excellent as usual on the backcourt, ranking third in the VNL in digs, with 160, and also delivering 39 passes in their campaign. The star libero was in top form in Sunday’s gold medal match against Brazil, producing a match-high 14 digs and registering four perfect passes.

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