The 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship was the 23rd edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship, contested by the men's national teams under the age of 21 of the members of the (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. It was held in Jiangmen Sports Center at Jiangmen, China from 21 to 31 August 2025.
Starting with this edition, the tournament was expanded to include 24 teams instead of 16 teams of previous editions, following a decision adopted by FIVB in June 2023.
Defending champions, Iran, claimed their third title after defeating Italy in the final. The United States defeated Czech Republic in the third-place match and clinched their first medal in the competition. Seyed Matin Hosseini of Iran was named the MVP of the tournament.
Host selection On 28 March 2024, FIVB opened the bidding process for member associations whose countries were interested in hosting one of the four Age Group World Championships in 2025 (i.e., U19 Boys' and Girls' World Championships and U21 Men's and Women's World Championships). The expression of interest of the member associations had to be submitted to FIVB by 30 April 2024, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2).
On 10 September 2024, FIVB announced that China had been selected as the host for the 2024 Boys' U21 World Championship.
Qualification A total of 24 national teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to the host team and the defending champions who qualified automatically, 20 other teams were qualified through five separate continental competitions which were required to held no later than 31 December 2024. Two remaining teams entered the tournament via the Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking (as of 31 December 2024) among the teams not yet qualified.
The slot allocation per confederation was set as follows: Defending champion (Iran): 1 AVC (Asia & Oceania): 4 CAVB (Africa): 3 CEV (Europe): 6 CSV (South America): 3 NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean): 4 Host: 1 Top teams not yet qualified as per Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking: 2
Qualified teams The following 24 teams qualified for the tournament. ConfederationQualifying tournamentTeam qualifiedAppearancesPrevious best performanceFirstLastAVCHost nation17th19772019Runners-up (1977)Defending champions15th19932023 (2019, 2023)2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship14th19772019 (1987)14th19772017 (1989)2nd1989 (1989)1stDebutNoneMen's U21 FIVB World Ranking4th19992023 (2023)CAVB2024 Men's U20 African Nations Championship14th19852023 (1999, 2005)15th19812023 (2003, 2023)8th19992021 (2005)CEV2024 Men's U20 European Championship7th19852015 (1999)7th19912023 (1993)11th19852023 (1991)17th19852023 (2021)4th19992017 (1999)4th20132017 (2013, 2015)Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking13th19892023 (1997, 2003, 2017)CSV2024 Men's U21 South American Championship23rd19772023 (1993, 2001, 2007, 2009)2nd1977 (1977)18th19772023 (2011, 2015)NORCECA2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship11th19772023 (2011)14th19772023 (1999)15th19812021 (1987, 2009, 2017)6th19892019 (1997)
Pools composition The draw for the pools composition will held on 4 December 2024 at the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The 24 participating teams will be split into four single round-robin pools of six with the host nations and the reigning world champions receiving the highest seeds. The rest of the qualified teams are seeded in a serpentine system based on their positions in the respective FIVB World Rankings.
Seeding Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking of each team as of 4 November 2024 are shown in brackets, except the hosts China who ranked 66th. Seeded teamsTeams to be drawnLine 1Line 2Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Draw The draw procedure also followed the serpentine system and was as follows: Teams from pot 4 were drawn first and were placed in line 6 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A. Teams from pot 3 were then drawn and placed in line 5 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D. Teams from pot 2 were then drawn and were placed in line 4 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A. Teams from pot 1 were then drawn and placed in line 3 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D.
The pools composition after the draw was as follow: + Pool ATeamA1A2A3A4A5A6+ Pool BTeamB1B2B3B4B5B6+ Pool CTeamC1C2C3C4C5C6+ Pool DTeamD1D2D3D4D5D6
Venue Jiangmen, ChinaJiangmen Sports CenterCapacity: 8,500
Competition formula changes In June 2023 during a three-day meeting in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the FIVB Board of Administration approved the proposal made by its Volleyball Council to increase the number of participating teams to 24 in its Age Group World Championships (U19 and U21 in both genders). Consequently, the distribution of quotas by confederation for the Women's U21 World Championship was modified regarding previous editions, ensuring one automatic quota for the defending champion and assigning two quotas based on the corresponding FIVB Age Group World Ranking.
The new competition formula was in line with the one adopted for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, which was also contested by 24 teams.
Pool standing procedure The ranking of teams in the preliminary round was established according the following criteria:
Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost); Match points; Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser Sets ratio; Points ratio; If the tie continues between two teams: result of the last match between the tied teams. If the tie continues between three or more teams: a new classification would be made taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
Squads
Each national team had to register a long-list roster with up to 25 players, which eventually had to be reduced to a final list of 12 players. Players born on or after 1 January 2005 were eligible to compete in the tournament.
Preliminary round All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Pool D
Final round All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
17th–24th places
17th–24th quarterfinals
21st–24th semifinals
17th–20th semifinals
23rd place match
21st place match
19th place match
17th place match
1st–16th places
Round of 16
9th–16th quarterfinals
Quarterfinals
13th–16th semifinals
9th–12th semifinals
5th–8th semifinals
Semifinals
15th place match
13th place match
11th place match
9th place match
7th place match
5th place match
3rd place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam456789101112131415161718192021222324 Qualified for the 2028 World Championship
12–man rosterTaha Behboudnia, Morteza Narimani, Emran Kook Jili, Mohammadmani AliKhani (c), Emad Kakavand, Shayan Mehrabi, Seyed Morteza Tabatabaei, Pouya Ariakhah, Ali Mombeni, Seyed Matin Hosseini, Ariyan Mahmoudi Nejad, Armin GhelichniaziHead coachGholamreza Momenimoghaddam
Awards The following individual awards was presented at the end of the tournament.
Most valuable player Seyed Matin Hosseini Best setter Emran Kook Jili Best outside spikers Seyed Matin Hosseini Sean Kelly Best middle blockers Taha Behboudnia Pardo Mati Best opposite spiker Tommaso Barotto Best libero Seyed Morteza Tabatabaei
Statistics leaders The statistics of leaders for each skill are recorded throughout the tournament.
Best ScorersRankPlayerAttacksBlocksServesTotal1 Daniel Martínez18511292252 Fausto Diaz15012121743 Wojciech Gajek1382391704 Yılmaz Üner14311121665 Hamza Awad132254161
Best AttackersRankPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Daniel Martínez1856910851.103622 Fausto Diaz1503614345.593293 Yılmaz Üner1435611545.543144 Tomáš Brichta139449250.552755 Wojciech Gajek138367056.56244
Best BlockersRankPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Ibrahim Abdelmaksood4355374.781352 Taha Behboudnia2824313.1183 Pardo Mati2840333.11101 Emiliano Molini2839473.111143 Shi Taier2733473.00764 Hamza Awad2531212.78775 Youssef Elrassas2443232.6790 Darda Mulya Muhammad2437353.0096
Best ServersRankPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Daniel Martínez29321073.221682 Artyom Olexenko1936542.111093 Seyed Matin Hosseini1841822.001414 Jackson Cryst1632721.781205 Amir Tizi-Oualou1526961.67137
Best SettersRankPlayerFaults1 Özgür Benzer270935130.006302 Amir Tizi-Oualou265534529.446153 Zhanibek Omar264340429.336714 Geng Qi263547329.227415 Kim Gwan-woo235537526.11615
Best DiggersRankPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Murojon Khavazmatov7321328.11126 João Pedro Centola7321329.121412 Mykola Dzhul7240408.001523 Enzo Lopez7126437.891404 Batu Akbaba6833467.561475 Sun Qingsong6729417.44137
Best ReceiversRankPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Nakharin Inthanu8199743.321872 Wang Bohan801114733.612383 Yiğit Hamza Aslan731416329.202504 Hamza Awad68716827.982435 Martos Antonio Soares Neto64611634.41186
See also 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women's U21 World Championship 2025 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship
References
External links