«The one with the blue shirt was a beautiful journey. I played many matches and had fantastic experiences getting to know the world and experiencing indescribable emotions like those of the Olympics”, says Monica De Gennaro, just nominated by Volleyball World, a portal connected to the Fivb, as the best volleyball player in the world for 2025. “I played four – continues the setter – and I wanted that medal with all of myself. For many years it was a taboo, but when we won in Paris in 2024 it was a crazy joy and the fulfillment of a dream: on the podium my whole career passed before me, the sacrifices and the work done with my teammates.” Then the 2025 World Cup, the last piece: «All that was missing was that victory and the circle was closed. It was right to close like this… make way for the young people now.”
Monica De Gennaro’s farewell to the Italian national team takes shape from these words, a mature and conscious farewell, arriving after having conquered everything that was possible to win. It is not a given, in high-level sport, to choose the right moment to move on. De Gennaro did it at the end of an unrepeatable cycle, culminating first with the Olympic gold in Paris 2024 and then with the world title in 2025, definitively closing a circle opened many years before.
This is how the most successful volleyball player in Italian history bids farewell to the blue team. In an era in which sport often thrives on media exposure and bombastic declarations, Monica De Gennaro has spanned two decades of career remaining true to herself: shy, smiling, concrete, silent. He has always preferred facts to words, daily work to rhetoric, attention to detail to seeking the spotlight. And it is by following this line that he has built a unique list of successes.
Victories with the national team
With the national team he won everything: an Olympic gold, a world gold, a European gold, three Volleyball Nations League, a World Cup and the Mediterranean Games. With Imoco Volley Conegliano dominated in Italy and Europe: three Champions Leagues, eight championships, seven Italian Cups, eight Super Cups and three Club World Cups. Added to this are thirteen international awards as best libero and, in the Volleyball Nations League 2025, the recognition as best player of the event.
A role, that of libero, often little visible to the general public, but which has changed stature with De Gennaro. A specialist in defense and reception, he transformed a silent function into a decisive art, becoming a technical and cultural reference for generations of athletes.
The beginnings
Only after having closed the blue chapter can the gaze go back to the beginning of a story that began far from the big stages. «It all came about a bit by chance. I started when I was about 9 years old with my sister in the team of my town, Sant’Agnello, in the Sorrento area. I immediately liked team sport, sharing joys and disappointments with my teammates”, she recalls. At 14 the first turning point came, the departure for Vicenza: «I didn’t know much about Serie A volleyball, there were no high-level teams near my home and I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I didn’t set myself any goals.”
Vicenza becomes his first gym in life. «At the beginning, so young and away from home, having to do everything alone scared me a little: school, timetables, eating. But I adapted well.” She will remain there for seven years, enough to understand that that path could become a future: «After a couple of years I joined the first team and I understood that I could look forward».
The ethics of the sporting profession
At the basis of his career there are simple and rigorous values. «I am very demanding of myself. I like to work hard and give my all to every workout. When I’m not satisfied I stay in the gym even after training with the team to perfect a detail or work on some shots.” After twenty years of Serie A, the motivation has remained intact: «I still wake up with the desire to train, to improve. As long as I’m having fun, I don’t feel the effort and sacrifice.”
Volleyball, she says, has given her back much more than it has taken from her. «He gave me so much: experiences, friendships and even family. It allowed me to travel the world and learn about different cultures and people. I have no regrets and I wouldn’t change anything.” Something, however, remained distant: «I missed the sea and the closeness to my family, to whom I am very close. I will always thank my parents for their constant support.”
His legacy
Today his message goes above all to girls. «I would say to Monica as a young girl and to all the girls and boys to go to the gym to work hard, to play and make friends. Talent is not enough: sacrifices, commitment, passion and consistency are needed. At the core, however, you always have to have fun.”
Her recipe for being successful and happy remains the same that has accompanied her throughout her career: «I live my job as a professional sportswoman with great serenity. For me the important thing is to give my best every day. Then there is the result of the pitch which also depends on the opponents and on many variables, but what matters to me is that I worked giving everything and I have a clear conscience because I gave my all.”
It is the legacy of a champion who never tried to appear, but who left a profound mark. In silence, as he has always done, so much so that the girls in the stands of the Allianz Cloud Arena on Saturday 27 December after the Numia Vero Volley-Imoco Conegliano match look at each other and comment: «De Gennaro is the best libero in the world. She already knows where the ball goes when the opponents attack and if it goes out she doesn’t even move.”
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