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Cannes has been forced into a last-minute change on the bench, just days before the start of the French men’s championship.
João Paulo Bravo was originally expected to lead the team this season, but the former Brazilian international will not be able to officially work as head coach in France because his coaching qualifications are not currently recognised as sufficient for the position.
The decision comes barely two weeks before the opening of the new season, leaving Cannes with little time to rethink its plans.
Rather than ending its collaboration with Bravo, however, the club has opted for a solution that could eventually turn the current problem into a longer-term project: Cyril Ong will take charge of the team, while Bravo will remain inside the coaching staff and work towards obtaining the qualifications required to become eligible to coach in France.
Bravo is far from an inexperienced coach.
After an extensive playing career as an outside hitter, which included spells at the highest international level with Brazil, he moved into coaching and has already built a respectable career on the bench. Last season he guided Arkas Spor to the Turkish second division semi-finals, making his arrival in Cannes particularly intriguing.
His coaching qualifications, however, create an immediate obstacle.
Bravo already holds the highest coaching diplomas available in Brazil, but those credentials do not currently allow him to occupy the head-coach position in the French professional system. Cannes therefore decided to keep him within the project rather than lose his experience altogether, with the possibility of seeing him eventually take over once he completes the necessary process.
The man stepping into the main role is Cyril Ong, who brings considerable experience of high-level volleyball and, importantly, is already fully familiar with the French system. He coached Béziers from 2011 to 2018 before taking charge of Nantes, where he remained until 2023. He then joined the French women’s national-team staff as an assistant coach, gaining two seasons of international experience alongside one of the most successful programmes in European volleyball.
Since 2024, he has also taken his career in a different direction, moving into men’s volleyball in South Korea as an assistant coach in Seoul. His appointment in Cannes now represents another change of environment, but this time with responsibility for an entire team and almost no preparation time.
He arrived in Cannes on Sunday and immediately began work with the squad as preparations continued for the new season.
The French championship, now known as Alterna StarLigue, begins on October 17, with Cannes opening its campaign against Poitiers.
That leaves the new coach with less than two weeks to establish his methods, understand his new group and prepare for a season that was supposed to begin under a completely different coaching plan. Bravo, meanwhile, will remain alongside him, giving Cannes an unusual coaching structure from the very beginning of the campaign — and potentially laying the foundations for a future in which the Brazilian can eventually return to the head-coach position once the administrative obstacle has been overcome.
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