Turkish volleyball achieved a historic milestone in the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL), with both its women's and men's national teams qualifying for the Finals.
The Turkish women's team secured a place among the tournament's final eight for the eighth consecutive year, while the Turkish men's team reached the VNL Finals for the first time in the competition's history, marking another landmark achievement for Turkish volleyball.
The 2026 VNL Women's Finals get underway on Wednesday in China's Macao Special Administrative Region, with Türkiye set to open its Finals campaign against Canada on Thursday.
Türkiye opened the tournament with victories over the Dominican Republic and Bulgaria in the opening week in Brazil, before suffering defeats to the Netherlands and Italy.
In the second week, held in Ankara, Türkiye defeated Germany, Belgium, France and China to complete a perfect four-match sweep.
During the third week, Türkiye beat Poland, Japan and Thailand but fell to the United States.
Türkiye finished the preliminary round in fourth place with nine wins and 25 points.
Facing Guidetti's Canada
Turkish women's team will face Canada — whose head coach Giovanni Guidetti previously coached Türkiye — in the quarterfinals.
Türkiye has won its last four official matches against Canada, all by 3-0 scores.
Canada's last victory over the Turkish women's national team came in the 2022 Volleyball Nations League.
If Türkiye defeats Canada, it will face the winner of the United States–China quarterfinal in the semifinals.
The Turkish Women's National Team won the VNL title in 2023, after previously claiming the silver medal in 2018 and the bronze medal in 2021.
Completing a historic double
Having qualified for the Finals for the first time in its history, the Turkish Men's National Volleyball Team secured its place by defeating Iran 3-1 in its final preliminary-round match, finishing sixth in the VNL standings with eight wins and 22 points.
In the opening week of the tournament, Türkiye defeated Canada and France but suffered losses to the United States and Italy, ending the week with two wins and two defeats.
In the second week, the national team defeated China, Argentina and Belgium before suffering a 3-2 loss to Poland.
The Crescent-Stars bounced back in the third week with victories over Serbia, Ukraine and Iran, while their only defeat came against Slovenia.
Türkiye will face Slovenia, which finished third in the preliminary standings with 10 wins, in the quarterfinals.
Serbian head coach Slobodan Kovac, who took charge in July 2025, has been a key figure behind the Turkish men's national team's rise.
Under Kovac, Türkiye reached the quarterfinals of the FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship for the first time in its history in 2025.
The team continued its upward trajectory in 2026 by qualifying for the VNL Finals for the first time.
Alongside Türkiye, the United States, Japan, Italy and host nation China qualified for the quarterfinals in both the women's and men's tournaments.
