Kuwait’s national men’s volleyball team left Kuwait City on Sunday for Cairo, Egypt, for a training camp ahead of the West Asia Men’s Volleyball Championship in Muscat, Oman from July 11 to 22. The 14-player squad travels under Argentine head coach Julian Alvarez and a five-person technical staff. The federation did not announce the camp’s length, but the team is heading out roughly two weeks before the tournament begins.
This is not Kuwait’s first Cairo stop. The federation ran a 10-day camp there ahead of the 2024 Arab Volleyball Championship, and the senior program is again leaning on Egyptian facilities for its final stretch of preparation. The Cairo block matters because Kuwait exited at the group stage of the inaugural West Asia championship in Bahrain last July, and Alvarez’s staff has the regional opener to prepare for. The Cairo camp names the 14-player squad named for the Cairo camp in full.
The Delegation Touching Down in Cairo
The Kuwait Volleyball Federation dispatched the delegation with board member Ziad Al-Anzi as its on-the-ground representative in Cairo. The support staff covers fitness, analysis, and medical roles around the senior team. Both staff and players will spend roughly two weeks in Egypt before flying on to Oman.
The federation’s released staff list names Abdullah Al-Ali as team administrator, Alvarez as head coach, and Zaid Al-Kazemi as assistant coach. Agustin Javier handles fitness, Lux Borsch works as analyst, and Mohammed Al-Yamam serves as physiotherapist. That is a six-person technical and administrative unit around the 14-player squad, bylined Arab Times staff writer Khaled Al-Enezi.
The federation framed the Cairo camp as a boost to physical and technical readiness ahead of the Muscat tournament, and the location gives the team a familiar block of training before regional play. Egypt has hosted Kuwaiti volleyball preparation before, and the federation is again using Cairo to give Al-Azraq a pre-tournament camp.
What Alvarez Brings to His First Long Camp
Alvarez arrived in Kuwait under the federation’s February 2024 contract with Alvarez, an Argentine hire that brought a South American volleyball perspective to a Gulf program. He has been on the job across the team’s domestic and regional cycles ever since, and the Cairo stop is the senior squad’s first extended pre-tournament block of his tenure. The federation kept him in place through last year’s group-stage exit at the inaugural West Asia championship, and the Muscat edition is the first major regional test where the team has had a long dedicated camp under his full staff.
The Argentine and his assistants now have two weeks of Cairo work to build the team into the shape the Muscat draw will demand. The senior team’s 2025 group-stage exit sets the floor for what Alvarez needs to clear.
The Field That Awaits in Muscat
The second edition of the West Asia Men’s Volleyball Championship runs in Muscat, hosted by the Oman Volleyball Association. Eight national teams from the West Asian Volleyball Federation take part, with pools split across two groups. Oman’s national team will play at home under Tunisian coach Nizar El Shukaili.
Qatar enter as defending champions after winning the inaugural edition in Bahrain last July. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE make the trip along with Lebanon, Jordan, and hosts Oman. The 2025 edition, also eight teams, was split into Group A (Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE) and Group B (Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia), and Kuwait was drawn into the same group as Oman. Oman’s hosting plans and 2025 championship recap lay out how the first edition played out.
The Muscat draw, group composition, and match schedule have not yet been announced by the Oman Volleyball Association. Kuwait exited last year’s championship at the group stage, a loss to Oman among its results, and the federation has not said where in the field Alvarez’s squad will be slotted this time. The Cairo camp is the preparation, not the placement.
| Team | 2025 result |
|---|---|
| Qatar | Won inaugural title |
| Oman | Beat Saudi Arabia 3-1 for bronze |
| Kuwait | Group-stage exit (lost to Oman) |
West Asia Men’s Volleyball Championship at a Glance
- Dates: July 11 to 22, 2026
- Host city: Muscat, Oman
- Teams: 8 national federations
- Defending champion: Qatar
- Kuwait’s 2025 finish: Group-stage exit
Cairo Has Hosted Kuwait Volleyball Before
Egypt is not a new stop for Kuwaiti volleyball. The federation has used Cairo as a pre-tournament base before, and the 2026 camp follows the same route.
The most recent Cairo camp was a 10-day block that ended in late October 2024, when Kuwait arrived in Manama ahead of the 23rd Arab Volleyball Championship. Per the Arab Times report on that tournament, the 2024 Cairo camp that preceded the Arab Championship included several friendlies against local opposition.
Kuwait opened that Arab Championship against Jordan and ran the camp as a final tune-up before the regional stage. The federation has now booked the same Cairo playbook for the West Asia championship, a year and a half after the Arab run.
Egyptian facilities have hosted Gulf volleyball preparations for years, and Cairo’s training halls give Gulf national teams a neutral venue with established gym infrastructure. The Kuwait federation keeps choosing the route because it has produced a usable block of on-court work before each major regional tournament.
The 14 Players Headed to Camp
The federation named the full Cairo camp squad, and four of the fourteen players share the Al-Anzi surname that the delegation head also carries. The roster mixes Al-Anzi family names with established national-team players drawn mostly from the domestic league.
- Abdulnasser Al-Anzi
- Rashid Anbar
- Nasser Dashti
- Ahmed Al-Munaies
- Fares Suleiman
- Abdullah Fares Al-Anzi
- Adhbi Al-Anzi
- Omar Al-Anzi
- Mohammed Al-Dhafiri
- Abdullah Al-Muwaineh
- Fahd Saad Yaqoub
- Ali Sadoon
- Talal Ahmed Abdulrazzaq
- Saud Al-Duwaisan
The squad departs Kuwait City on June 28, and the West Asia Men’s Volleyball Championship in Muscat opens on July 11.
