A few national teams have changed their head coaches in the past few weeks.
After Dejan Savic’s resignation, Uros Stevanovic was appointed as Serbia’s head coach. Germany has been looking for a new coach since Petar Porobic left the bench.
China and Kazakhstan have new coaches, as well as Serbia.
Porobic returned to China after resigning from his job in Germany. The experienced Montenegrin was the head coach of China’s male and female national teams for several years and led the women’s team at the Tokyo Olympics last year. Porobic will guide the men’s national team of China at the Asian Championships in Bangkok in November.
Since the coronavirus outbreak, the men’s water polo team of China hasn’t participated in competitions. The pandemic was the reason why China men didn’t play in the qualifications for the Olympic Games. Therefore, Porobic took over the female team, which had qualified for Tokyo earlier.
Petar Porobic Photo: Total Waterpolo
The latest information about new coaches has arrived from Kazakhstan, which will be one of China’s main rivals in Bangkok. Serbian Nebojsa Obradovic has become the new head coach of Kazakhstan’s men’s national senior team.
Obradovic will be the third Serb on Kazakhstan’s bench in the last several years. Nemanja Knezevic coached Kazakhstan for years (he works in Radnicki Kragujevac now). Knezevic was replaced by Dejan Stanojevic was the head coach until January 2021. Last year, Stanojevic became the head coach of the Georgian national team and Dinamo Tbilisi. After Stanojevic’s departure, Knezevic returned to Kazakhstan for a short.
Rustam Ukumanov led the team at the World Championships in Budapest this summer.
Obradovic has been a water polo coach for three decades. He has worked as a coach in several Serbian clubs (Crvena Zvezda, Vojvodina, Nais Nis, ZAK Kikinda), in Slovenia (Koper), Turkey (Iyik), Saudi Arabia (Al Ahly), and won many trophies with all the clubs.
Nebojsa Obradovic Photo: Astana Water Polo
He moved to Kazakhstan some time ago and has worked as a coach of one of the best clubs in Kazakhstan – Astana and with junior and youth national teams.
Obradovic will debut on Kazakhstan’s bench at the Asian Championships.
It is interesting to mention that Uros Stevanovic, the new head coach of Serbia, worked on the coaching staff of the national team of Kazakhstan in 2012. In that year, Kazakhstan won the title of the Asian champion and 9th place at the Olympic Games.
