Reigning champion Italy, Olympic gold medalist France, world No. 1 Poland and other elite teams are coming for the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship 2025 set next month at the Mall of Asia Arena and Smart Araneta Coliseum.

All three squads have been installed as heavy favorites owing to their world rankings and current titles approaching the final two weeks of calm before the world spikefest storms into the country from 12 to 2vaa8 September.

Led by top-ranked spiker Wilfredo Leon and Volleyball Nations League Most Valuable Player (MVP) middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski, Poland marches into the Philippine shores as the No. 1 team squad as per the updated FIVB rankings.

Poland, the silver medalist in the 2024 Paris Olympics, earned 400 points after sweeping Italy in the VNL finals this month in China and is likely to stay as the top-ranked squad without any tournaments on board as the 32 teams hit the final stage of their preparations.

France is ranked fourth and will ride its back-to-back title feats in the Olympics capped by a sweep of world No. 1 Poland to also join the top title contenders in the biggest world championship edition in FIVB history.

Paris MVP Earvin Ngapeth stands at the forefront of the Frenchmen who’re also out to avenge their early quarterfinal exit in the 2022 world championship hosted by Poland and Slovenia.

Then there’s the reigning global champion and world No. 2 Italy which is determined in holding fort and avenging its VNL finale defeat to Poland.

VNL Best Setter Simone Giannelli and Best Outside Spiker Alessendro Michieletto spearhead the way for the Italians, who stunned their Polish rivals in the 2022 edition at home.