Daniele Santarelli
PRIMO ALLENATORE
Born in 1981 in Foligno, Umbria, after a playing career as a libero up to B1 level, he began coaching first with youth teams in his region, then as an assistant coach in the top league: in the 2012/13 season he was in Pesaro, then Urbino, and in the 2014/15 season with Davide Mazzanti at Pomì Casalmaggiore, where he won the championship as an assistant coach.
The following year, he followed the former national team coach to Imoco Volley, where after two seasons as an assistant (with another championship title, a Super Cup, and an Italian Cup), he was promoted to head coach and achieved the championship title at the first attempt in 2018, reaching the Italian Cup final and the Champions League semifinal. Since the summer of 2018, he has also been the coach of Croatia. In the 2018/19 season, he secured a second championship title with Conegliano, also winning the Super Cup, reaching the Italian Cup final, and the Super Finals in Berlin, ending with silver.
From that match onwards, coach Santarelli’s series of incredible victories and trophies began, setting a “Guinness” record of 76 consecutive wins across all competitions (two years without defeat from December 2019!).
During this golden period, he won the World Club Championship (2019), the Champions League (2021), and the championship (2021), while also dominating the Italian Cup and Super Cup editions. His trophy cabinet was only slightly diminished by the absence of the championship playoffs and the Champions League final stages in 2020 due to the pandemic. The journey continued in the 2021/22 season with a “triple crown” (the fifth championship, the Super Cup, and the Italian Cup), while in the Champions League and the World Club Championship, he won silver medals.
In 2022, he also took over the national team bench, becoming the coach of the powerful Serbia, leading them to the podium at the VNL and a fantastic double at the World Cup in the final against Brazil in Rotterdam.
Since 2017, he has been married to “his” libero, Monica De Gennaro.
Alongside his successive successes with Prosecco DOC Imoco, his career has further taken off in Turkey, where he was appointed coach of the national team of the Crescent, immediately bringing them to unprecedented heights with the win of the European Championship and the VNL ’23, as well as a historic qualification for the Paris Olympics, where they finished fourth.
In the 2023/24 season, he achieved the quadruple for the second time, while at the dawn of 2025, he is the coach of the reigning Italian, European, and world champion team.
