Francesca Piccinini

Francesca Piccinini (born 10 January 1979 in Massa) is an Italian volleyball player who has represented Italy four times (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) at the Summer Olympics. She was a member of the Women's National Team that won the gold medal at the 2002 World Championship in Germany. She made her debut for Italy on 10 June 1995 against the United States. She was inspired to become a professional volleyball player by the Japanese anime ''Attack No. 1'', shown in Italy in the 1980s under the title ''Mimì e la nazionale della pallavolo''.

In 2004, she appeared nude in a calendar published by the Italian magazine ''Men's Health'' and modeled for ''Liu·Jo''.

Playing professionally with the Italian club Volley Bergamo, she won the "Most Valuable Player" award when her team won the 2009–10 CEV Indesit Champions League title.

Piccinini played with her national team at the 2014 World Championship. There her team ended up in fourth place after losing the bronze medal match 2–3 to Brazil.

In 2016, she again became "Most Valuable Player" when her team, Pomì Casalmaggiore, claimed the 2015–16 CEV DenizBank Champions League title 3–0 over the Turkish VakıfBank Istanbul. Provided by Wikipedia