Olympic champion Serbia has started preparations for the Tokyo Games.
Head coach Dejan Savic called up 31 players.
On Saturday, most of the candidates for the national team gathered in Kragujevac. They will train in Kragujevac until the end of the following week. A day later, the preparations will continue in Belgrade.
Savic and his coaching staff have been working with 26 players in Kragujevac
Goalkeepers: Branislav Mitrovic (Vasas), Gojko Pijetlovic (Oradea), Dimitrije Risticevic (Novi Beograd), Lazar Dobožanov (Radnicki), Vladimir Misovic (Crvena Zvezda), Radoslav Filipovic (Sabac).
Field players: Filip Filipovic (Szonlok in the 2020/21 season – Olympiacos from next season) , Dusko Pijetlovic (Szolnok – Novi Beograd), Stefan Mitrovic (Partizan) , Milos Cuk (Novi Beograd), Sava Randjelovic (Vasas), Radomir Drasovic (Szolnok – Novi Beograd), Nikola Dedovic (Spandau 04), Viktor Rasovic (Noisy-le-Sec), Strahinja Rasovic (Radnicki),Gavril Subotic (Crvena Zvezda), Nemanja Vico (Trieste), Petar Velkic (Sabac), Vuk Milojevic (Crvena Zvezda), Marko Radovic (Crvena Zvezda), Djordje Vucinic (Sabac), Vasilije Martinovic (Novi Beograd), Nikola Lukic (Radnicki), Luka Pljevancic (Radnicki), Marko Radulovic (Radnicki), Stefan Brankovic (Radnicki).
The remaining five players – Andrija Prlainovic (Marseille), Milan Aleksic (Barceloneta), Dusan Mandic (Pro Recco), Nikola Jaksic (Ferencvaros), and Djordje Lazic (Brescia), who played at the Champions League Final Eight in Belgrade, will join the national team on June 14.
“We have a larger number of players at the preparations than usual because we want younger, talented players to feel our atmosphere again and to progress in working with more experienced players”, Dejan Savic said.
Between June 14 and 19, Serbia will train together with the Team USA in Belgrade. Then, the Olympic champions will go to Kranj (Slovenia) for the two-week preparations (June 19- July 2). Early in July, the friendly tournament will be held in Belgrade, featuring two teams of Serbia, Spain, and France. The Olympic team will depart for Japan on July 15.