Venezuela's Men have been hovering among the world’s top 10 to 20 teams in the FIVB rankings since 2000.

The current team is made up of players who claimed third place at the Junior World Championships, second place at the Youth Championships and first and second place at the Youth, Junior and Senior South American Championships.

They also have experience from their time at Club in overseas National Leagues.

Venezuela has hosted FIVB World League matches in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, with the latter edition seeing their best performance.

A notable result recently was when Venezuela beat Brazil and Cuba on their way to becoming 2003 Pan American Games Champions.

The team first took part in the FIVB World Cup in 2003 when they finished in eighth place with four wins against seven losses.

In the last two FIVB World Championships, they have finished in joint-17th place.

Venezuela won the right to participate for the first time in the Olympics by winning the South American Olympic Qualification Tournament in January ahead of the likes of Argentina to advance to Beijing.

The Venezuelans face a tough group in the 2008 World League, up against France, Serbia and Brazil.

Ricardo Navajas, born September 27, 1958, took over as Venezuela National Team Head Coach in 2007.

The job is the culmination of 17 years as a coach in the game and a long way from when he started as Head Coach for the Suzano Junior Club in 1990 before becoming Head Coach of the main Suzano Club.

He has picked up a lot of titles along the way. He was South American Champion in 1995, Brazilian Champion in 1992, 1993, and 1996 and eight-time champion in the Paulista League in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2002.

He has got off to a flyer as Head Coach of Venezuela. He led them to first place in the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament that guaranteed the South Americans of a place at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Before that, he led the team to fourth at the Pan Americans Games and third at the South American Championships in 2007.

Before taking over the National Team he was technical coordinator for SPFC/Taubaté, while in 2005 he was with E.C. ULBRA, where they were Regional Games Champion, Open Games Champion, claimed second at the Gaucho Region Games, third in the Paulista Championship and fourth in the Brazilian Championship.