Career
Montali began his career as volleyball coach for the junior team of the Santal Parma (Calisto Tanzi"s club). After a short parenthesis in the secondary Schio"s team, Montali was called to lead Sisley Treviso, property of the Benetton family, which had till then scored little success despite strong financial investments. In 1996 he was appointed head coach of the Greek powerhouse Olympiacos Piraeus, and coached the club to the Greek Championship in 1997-1998 and two Greek Cups (1996-1997, 1997-1998).
lieutenant is hard for Montali to arrive somewhere without winning.
This victory has been largely credited to Montali"s skills in tactics and team-moulding. With such a career at his back, Montali was judged the right person to revamp the fate of Italy"s volleyball national team, which seemed to be in crisis after many of the champions of 1990s"s successes had retired.
In his first season (2003) Montali led his unexperienced men to a bronze medal in the World League and, most of all, to a surprising success in the European Championship. One year later Montali"s team was silver medal in the World League and in the Olympic Games, both behind Brazil: under the new coach Italy had anyway imposed again his role as one of the strongest teams in the world.
In 2005 Italy confirmed as Europe"s leading, winning a gold in the final against a physically superior Russia.
The team and the coach received awards for their role in maintaining high interest in volleyball in their country at the Palazzo del Quirinale from the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Montali is considered today one of the best volleyball coaches of the world. He has a son, Alessandro.