Who Is Manuel Zlatanov: Stats, Career and What It Takes to Play Outside Hitter

Manuel Zlatanov is an outside hitter born in 2008. After two seasons in A2 with Ravenna, capped with the award for best Under 23 in the league, from 2026/27 he is back at Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza on a three-year deal. He is eighteen and has already won an Under 17 World Championship as MVP.

Profile: the key numbers

• Full name: Manuel Hristov Zlatanov
• Date of birth: 7 March 2008
• Place of birth: Piacenza
• Position: outside hitter
• Height: 201 cm
• Club 2026/27: Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza (three-year contract)
• National team: Italy youth teams

We couldn't find an official Instagram profile we could verify, so we're not listing one.

His club career

Zlatanov came up through Piacenza, where on 3 December 2023, against Verona, he made his SuperLega debut at 15 years, 8 months and 26 days: according to Lega Pallavolo, the youngest debutant in the history of the league.

Then came the right call, the one plenty of players get wrong: two seasons in A2 with Ravenna to actually play, instead of sitting on a bench in A1. In 59 appearances with Consar he put together 618 points, 496 of them in attack, 52 aces and 70 blocks. In 2026 came the Gianfranco Badiali Award as the best Italian Under 23 in Serie A2 2025/26.

From 2026/27 he is back in Piacenza, this time in a different role: no longer the academy kid, but a SuperLega player the club has signed for three years. Volleyball runs in the family and he has always had the ball in his hands; what he added in A2 is the rest of the job.

His national team career

• Under 17 European champion in 2023
• Under 17 world champion in 2024, named MVP and best outside hitter
• Dream Team at the Under 18 European Championship as best outside hitter
• Under 22 European Championship in Portugal

People who follow him credit him with three things: jumping ability, power in attack and solid back-court skills. That is exactly the combination a modern outside hitter needs.

What it takes physically to play outside hitter at a high level

Outside hitter is the most complete position and, physically, the most misunderstood. A lot of young players train as if they were opposites: all jump and all power. But the real problem for an outside hitter is a different one, and it's this: he has to pass and attack in the same rally.

That means he starts low, reads the serve, moves, controls the ball with his arms, and from there he has a second and a half to find his approach and a full jump. He doesn't get an opposite's time to get ready. He has less space and less margin.

The qualities that make the difference:

• Speed of transition from pass to attack. This isn't just technique: it's eccentric strength in the lower body, meaning the ability to brake and go again without losing centimetres. If your strength base is weak in that phase, you lose height exactly on the attack after a pass.
• A jump that holds up under the workload. An outside hitter rotates through all six positions, passes, digs, attacks. The jump in the fourth set matters more than the jump in the warm-up.
• Core stability. Attacking off a crooked approach or from shaky balance means hitting crooked. The core isn't there for looks, it's there so the arm can transmit the force the legs produced.
• One-foot and two-foot jumping. An outside hitter jumps in a thousand ways: attack off a long approach, quick ball, tip on the run, back-row attack. Training only the standing jump leaves half the game uncovered.

One point that goes for everyone: 201 cm is a structural advantage you can't train for. But reach is height plus jump, and on the second part you have far more room than you think.

How to measure your jump (before you train it)

Before you copy someone else's program, get your own number. With the JHP jump test you upload a two-second video and get your height in centimetres, calculated from flight time. It's free, the analysis runs in your browser and the video never leaves your device.

Then you train with a method and measure again a few weeks later. If you're an outside hitter and want to work on the attacking movement, Spike Revolution is built on exactly that. If you train with bodyweight only, JumpHigherPro is a 10-week program with no equipment. During the season, so you don't arrive at March running on empty, there's Volley In-Season Workout.

You might also like:

• Italian volleyball players to watch in 2026/27: the young names in SuperLega
• Who is Alessandro Bovolenta: stats, career and what it takes to play opposite