Nikola Kojic, one of the most talented Serbian players, will probably lose the entire season.
He was the MVP of the World U18 Championships in Belgrade, where Serbia won silver.
Several weeks later, he won gold with Serbia at the European U19 championships in Podgorica.
Kojic hasn’t played in official games since the tournament in Podgorica because of the dispute over his registration for the season 2022/23. During the transfer window, he signed a contract with Radnicki. Partizan, the club he played for from the beginning of his career until the last summer, filed an appeal, claiming that Kojic couldn’t leave the club because Partizan had a valid 4-year contract with him (signed by his parents because Nikola was underage at the moment of the signing). We have already written about it.
The case was, obviously, very complicated since it wasn’t solved since September when Partizan appealed. Both sides had strong arguments on why they believed Kojic was their player.
The commissions and judges of the Water Polo Federation of Serbia didn’t solve the dispute. The Olympic Committee of Serbia took over the case and solved it after several months.
The Arbitration Commission of the Olympic Committee of Serbia decided that Nikola Kojic couldn’t move from Partizan to Radnicki (for now). The contract with the Belgrade-based club is valid.
But it’s questionable if he will return to Partizan. Even if he returns, it will be too late for this season. Partizan will play a few matches until the end of the season.
He wishes to play for the Kragujevac-based club. Kojic has trained with Radnicki since the start of the season, but hasn’t played a single game. He participated in the preparations of the national team for the World Cup,
The two clubs have to agree now. Cool heads have to prevail in preventing longer damage for Kojic and Serbian water polo. The development of the young player, who is the future of Serbian water polo, has already slowed with a missed season.
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