SCANDICCI (FLORENCE)- The Frenchman Stéphane Antiga is the new coach of Savino Del Bene Scandicci who, after saying goodbye to Massimo Barbolini, has decided to focus on the former professional volleyball player and now successful coach, who boasts a prestigious curriculum in the world of international volleyball. After a brilliant career as a spiker, culminating in the victory of numerous national and international titles, Antiga embarked on a career as a coach, leading high-level teams and achieving important results, including the 2014 World Championship with the Polish national team.
THE CARREER-
Born on 3 February 1976 in Suresnes, a French municipality in the Île-de-France, Stéphane Antiga began his career as a volleyball player in 1994, when he made his debut in the French National 1A with Paris UC, a team that changed in 1998 name following the merger with RC de France.
Precisely in 1998 Stéphane Antiga joined the senior French national team with which he later won the bronze medal at the 2002 world championship and the silver medal at the 2003 and 2009 European championships.
At club level Antiga remained in Paris for nine seasons, winning seven championships, four French cups, a Champions League, a Cup Winners’ Cup and a European Super Cup.
After his long militancy in the French championship, Antiga left his native country and landed in the Italian Serie A1, being signed by Cuneo for the 2003-2004 season. After a single year spent in Italy, Stéphane Antiga enjoyed three successful seasons in Spain, winning two championships, two King’s Cups and the Spanish Super Cup with the Pòrtol shirt.
Once the Spanish experience was over, the Polish phase of Antiga’s career began, given that from 2007-2008 he wore the colors of Skra Be?chatów, a club for which he played for four seasons, winning as many consecutive championships and two Polish cups .
In 2011-2012 Antiga then changed team, but still remained in Poland, agreeing for a two-year period with ?uczniczka Bydgoszcz. A short experience that led him to return to Skra Be?chatów in 2013-2014, a team that allowed him to win his fifth Polish national title.
After retiring as a player, Antiga immediately began his coaching career, being chosen as coach of the Polish men’s national team, a selection that the French coach led to victory in the 2014 world championship.
Having won Poland’s second world title, Antiga signed a contract in 2017 with the Volleyball Federation of Canada announcing the hiring of Stéphane Antiga as coach of the men’s national team. With Canada he won the bronze medal at the 2017 World League and the North American championship, later resigning in October 2018.
Having put his experiences as coach behind him, Antiga returned to Poland to coach the Polish team ONICO Warszawa, remaining in charge of the first team for two seasons. Starting from the 2019-2020 season, he made his debut at the helm of a women’s team, joining Developres Rzeszów, which he led to victory in the 2021 Polish Super Cup and the 2021-2022 Polish Cup.
Having finished his journey with Rzeszów, Stéphane Antiga decided to accept a new adventure by returning to Italy to lead Savino Del Bene Volley.
The words of Stéphane Antiga–
« Arriving in Scandicci for me is certainly a beautiful adventure and a great challenge. I am happy to discover the Italian league, where the level is higher than the Polish league in which I have coached for the last five years. Savino Del Bene Volley is a team with ambition and very well organised, it was very nice to see what they did this season with the second place achieved in the regular season and the championship final played playing very well against Conegliano. I would like to continue the work that Massimo Barbolini and all of his staff have done in recent years and I would like to bring something further. It will be nice to participate in the Champions League again this season, which is a competition that makes you dream and in which I would like the team to be able to go even further, so this will also be an objective. I’m very happy and can’t wait to get started! ».
The words of the director Francesco Paoletti–
« In the last period we have evaluated some profiles and with a collegial decision we have chosen to entrust the technical guidance to Stéphane Antiga, a coach who in the women’s game has linked his name to the Polish club Resovia, with which he also participated in European competitions. I believe he achieved excellent team results and at the same time improved the athletes with whom he worked; today he has an important challenge ahead of him because last season’s results have inevitably raised the bar for our club and we will have our eyes on him right from his first appearances. We have also chosen to keep various figures of the technical staff unchanged so as to facilitate the dynamics of their insertion into the new working context.”
Paoletti, commenting on the choice of the new coach of Savino Del Bene Volley, wanted to recall the growth path of the club in recent seasons and at the same time greeted and thanked coach Massimo Barbolini:
« A journey that lasted four seasons with Massimo comes to an end, the last of which ended just a few weeks ago with a championship final reached for the first time in the history of our club and exactly 10 years after its debut in the top category. I think that the quality of the technical path is demonstrated not only by the victories in the CEV Challenge Cup 2022 and in the CEV Cup 2023 but by the constant improvement achieved in each season. I would therefore like to greet and wish the best professional luck to Massimo Barbolini who will have an important goal to pursue with the Italian national team in the coming weeks.”
