Uros Stevanovic, Serbia’s head coach, called 24 players for the preparations for the European Championships in Croatia.
The Serbs, who won 4th place at the 2023 World Championships and thus secured themselves a spot at the WCH in Doha, will have the first training in Kragujevac on December 9.
All 15 players who competed at the Worlds in Fukuoka are on the extended roster. Among them is captain Nikola Jaksic, who recently got injured (an old elbow injury). He didn’t play for Novi Beograd at the Serbian Cup Final Four and will miss the Champions League match against Sabadell. According to the first prognosis, he was supposed to be out of training for a month. Still, after the latest examination, there is information that he might return to the pool earlier.
Several players who didn’t participate in last summer’s actions returned to the team – Dusan Mandic (he didn’t play in Fukuoka due to his request, approved by the WPF of Serbia and Stevanovic); Viktor Rasovic (who was injured in the summer); center-forward Nemanja Vico and Nikola Lukic.
Between December 18 and 21, the Serbs will play at the preparation tournament in Budapest, along with Hungary, Spain, Romania and Germany. The joint training sessions with Croatia in Belgrade are planned for the end of December.
The players called up to the preparations
Goalkeepers: Branislav Mitrovic (Tourcoing Lille), Radoslav Filipovic (Oradea), Vladimir Misovic (Crvena Zvezda)
Field players: Nemanja Ubovic ( Vouliagmeni), Nemanja Vico ( Primorac), Djordje Lazic (Brescia), Bogdan Gavrilovic (Radnicki), Sava Randjelovic (Vasas), Petar Jaksic (Partizan), Nikola Jaksic (Novi Beograd), Radomir Drasovic (Novi Beograd), Luka Pljevancic (Radnicki), Strahinja Rasovic (Vasas), Marko Radulovic (Novi Beograd), Vasilije Martinovic (Novi Beograd), Dusan Mandic (Ferencvaros), Viktor Rasovic (Noisy-le-Sec), Filip Jankovic (Radnicki), Nikola Lukic (Novi Beograd), Djordje Vucinic (Novi Beograd), Marko Radovic (Crvena zvezda), Vuk Milojevic (Crvena zvezda), Marko Dimitrijevic (Partizan), Luka Gladovic (Partizan).
Serbia will play against Germany, Israel, and Malta in the first stage of the European Championships (Group C in Zagreb).
