Almost half of the Serbian national team players will debut at the World Championships next week.
Head coach Uros Stevanovic announced the 15-player roster for the Worlds in Fukuoka. Seven of the picked players have never played at the World Senior Championships.
Seventeen players started this summer’s tour with the Serbian national team. The two who won’t play in Fukuoka are goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic and Marko Radovic.
Non-debutants on the Serbian team are goalkeeper Branislav Mitrovic, Sava Randjelovic, Djordje Lazic, Nemanja Ubovic, Strahinja Rasovic, Nikola Jaksic, Radomir Drasovic, Marko Radulovic. Four of them participated in the World Championships when Serbia has won its previous medal (bronze in 2017): Mitrovic, Randjelovic, Jaksic, and returnee Ubovic, who wasn’t called up to the national team after the 2018 Mediterranean Games until this year. Mitrovic, Jaksic, and Randjelovic were the world champions in 2015.
Serbia has been forming a new team. It was expected that there would be several debutants on the roster. However, it wasn’t planned that two experienced players would be missing – Dusan Mandic (he asked to skip this summer’s national team activities) and Viktor Rasovic (who got injured at the end of the Champions League).
For the first time since it debuted on the main stage as an independent country (in 2006), Serbia won’t have a left-handed player on the team.
Serbia at the 2023 World Championships
Goalkeepers: Branislav Mitrovic (Tourcoing), Vladimir Misovic (Crvena Zvezda)
Field players: Strahinja Rasovic (Vasas), Marko Radulovic (Novi Beograd),Sava Randjelovic (Vasas), Djordje Lazic (Brescia), Vuk Milojevic (Crvena Zvezda), Radomir Drasovic (Novi Beograd), Nikola Jaksic (Novi Beograd), Filip Jankovic (Radnicki), Nemanja Ubovic (Vouliagmeni), Djordje Vucinic (Novi Beograd), Vasilije Martinovic (Novi Beograd), Bogdan Gavrilovic (Radnicki), Marko Dimitrijevic (Partizan).
Serbia opened the tournament with the most demanding match. In the first round of Group D (July 17), it will meet world champion Spain. The remaining two rivals in the group are Montenegro and South Africa.
For more news and the schedule about the upcoming Worlds, visit Total Waterpolo’s 2023 World Championships page.
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