Julio Velasco (born February 9, 1952 in La Plata, Argentina) is a professional volleyball coach from Argentina. He guided the Italian national men's team to several successes in the 1990s. After the 1996 Summer Olympics, where the Italians won silver, he switched to the Italian women's team (1996–1997). In 2011, Velasco was signed as the head coach of the Iran men's national team. He became coach of the Argentina men's national team before his contract expired with the Iranian national team on 1 March 2014. The President of Argentina asked him to take this job. The change was approved by the Iranian volleyball confederation.[1]