Montenegrin and world water polo left without one of the persons who laid the foundations of the biggest successes of modern Montenegrin water polo
A sad news came today: Petar Porobic suddenly died.
Porobic was born in Kotor in 1957. Throughout his playing career, he was a member of the club from his hometown – Primorac and played for the junior national team of Yugoslavia.
He started his coaching career at Primorac in 1982. He also coached Becej, Jadran Herceg Novi, Sturm, Galatasaray, and Sintez Kazan at the club level.
Porobic won the Yugoslavian championships and the Cup with Becej before arriving in Jadran Herceg Novi, where he left a strong mark. Porobic came to Jadran in 1998 and set up the system of a mighty club. Under Porobic’s guidance, the Herceg Novi-based team progressed from year to year – it won four titles of the Yugoslavian champion (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) and reached the final of the Champions League in 2004, where it lost to Honved.
Porobic as Jadran head coach in 2002 Photo: PVK Jadran
Porobic’s name is linked to many successes of the other clubs where he worked.
In the mid-1980s, he was involved in the national teams’ coaching staff for the first time and worked with the junior team of Yugoslavia. He coached the female national team of Yugoslavia in 1991.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Porobic was part of many successes of the national team of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). First, he was the head coach Nenad Manojlovic’s assistant between 2000 and 2004. Yugoslavia won two Olympic medals (bronze in 2000 and silver in 2004) during that period.
After the 2004 Olympics, he was appointed as the head coach of Serbia and Montenegro and led the team to the title of the World champion at the WCH in Montreal in 2005, to the gold in the World League in the same year, and to the highest step of the podium in the 2006 World Cup.
Porobic was the first head coach of the national team of the independent Montenegro. The Montenegrins clinched gold medals at the European Championships (2008) and World League (2009), and silver in the 2010 World League, led by Porobic.
Between 2017 and 2020, he was the head coach of the Chinese male water polo team. In 2021, he started coaching China’s women, who won 8th place at the Tokyo Olympics.
After one year spent on the bench of Germany (2021 -2022), Porobic returned to China. Last year, he took over the men’s national team again. This year, the Chinese won gold at the Asian Championships and silver at the Asian Games. Just two days ago, Porobic was on the bench for the last time – in the final of the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
He participated in the Olympic Games five times: 2000, 2004 ( a member of the coaching staff of Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro), 2008 (Montenegro head coach), 2016 ( a member of Montenegro’s staff), and 2020 (a head coach of China’s female team).
Porobic had an excellent reputation in the world of water polo and was the President of the Board of Directors of the World Water Polo Coaches Association.
