A day after Mladost finished the season, the Zagreb-based club officially left without two players. Olympic champion Milos Cuk and Alex Bowen, the player of the Team USA, departed Mladost.
Milos Cuk returns to Serbia and he will play for Novi Beograd 011, the club which is coached by legendary Vladimir Vujasinovic.
Alex Bowen will continue his career in Greece. He signed a 1-year contract with Apollon Smyrnis.
Cuk (30) came to Mladost in 2018 and won two titles in the Regional League and one Croatian Cup with Mladost. Earlier, he played for Vojvodina, Partizan, Eger, and Szolnok. He won the Champions League with Partizan (2011) and two LEN Super Cups (2011 with Partizan and 2017 with Szolnok), many domestic trophies… Playing for Serbia, he clinched 17 medals, including the gold at the 2016 Olympic Games, the title of the World Champion in 2015, four golds at the European Championships…
Cuk was one of the best scorers of Mladost in the past two seasons and was voted for the MVP of the Regional League Final Four, held ten days ago in Dubrovnik.
Novi Beograd 011 is a young club, but it has big ambitions. The coach is one of the best world players of all time Vladimir Vujasinovic. Before Cuk, several experienced players have come: Marko Avramovic (from Sabadell), Drasko Gogov (Trieste), Vojislav Cupic (Roma Vis Nova). Dimitrije Risticevic, goalkeeper, Djordje Filipovic, and Petar Tomic renewed the contracts.
Bowen (27) will be this summer’s fifth reinforcement for Apollon, which finished 4th in the Greek League.
A few weeks ago, Olympic champion Stefan Mitrovic signed a contract with Apollon, after he left Olympiacos. In the meantime, three players joined Apollon: Manolis Solanakis (played in Steaua last season), George Torakis (Ethnikos), and Aggelos Goniotakis, the winner of the gold medal at the 2019 World Junior Championship, who came from Palaio Faliro. In addition, Montenegrin goal-getter Nikola Moskov and reliable goalkeeper Konstantinos Galanidis renewed the contract with Apollon.
During the one season in Mladost, Bowen won the Regional League and the Croatian Cup. Before coming to Mladost, he played for Hungarian Miskolc (2016-2019). The 27-year-old attacker graduated from Stanford and earned many medals with the Stanford water polo team in the college competitions. He scored over 200 goals for Stanford.
Bowen has been playing for Team USA since 2013. Some of his most significant achievements with the national team were the silver medal in the 2016 World League, two golds at the Pan American Games (2015 and 2019), etc.
Aljosa Kunac retires
Mladost finished the season with a shocking 3:19 loss to Jug on Saturday. Still, the club had a very good season, considering that it won the Regional League and the Croatian Cup.
The club will keep almost all of the players that took part in winning the two trophies. As things stand now, nobody but Bowen, Cuk, and Aljosa Kunac, who finished his career, will leave Mladost.
Kunac, who was the 2007 World champion with Croatia, retires at the age of 39. He made the decision on the retirement much before the final series of the Croatian League. But, he will not leave water polo. He will start to work as a coach in his hometown Split. Playing for POSK Split, Kunac clinched the trophy of the Europan champion in the season 1998/99.
Mladost has brought the first reinforcement. Mislav Vrlic left Primorje Rijeka and joins Mladost. Mislav’s older brother Josip Vrlic has been Mladost’s center-forward since last summer.
All news about transfers you can find HERE
