After two years on Pro Recco’s bench, Croatian coach Ratko Rudic will leave the best Italian club, Italian media writes today.
Rudic and the club won’t extend the 2-year contract, signed in 2018, the website wpdworld.com published. According to this news, Pro Recco waits for the final decision about the ending of the season. Then, the club will announce the ending of the cooperation with Rudic.(it’s most likely that Italian championship won’t be continued, while the Champions League is in question)
The Croat might be replaced by Carlo Sillipo, a member of the Italian team which won the Olympic gold in 1992 (Rudic was Italy’s coach at that time), while he has coached the U17 and U19 Italian squads since 2017. He was Posillipo’s coach from 2007 to 2012.
Rudic is the most decorated water polo coach in the world. He guided three national teams to the Olympic gold medals (Yugoslavia in 1984 and 1988, Italy in 1992 and Croatia in 2012). After he left the Croatian national team, he was Brazil’s head coach (2013 – 2016). He coached Team USA early in the 21st century.
After Brazil, he retired, but he came out of retirement and accepted Pro Recco’s offer in 2018. In the season 2018/19, Pro Recco won all the trophies in the domestic competitions, while it was eliminated by Olympiacos in the Champions League semifinals. The Greeks defeated Pro Recco with a last-gasp goal (12:11) in the semifinals of the Final Eight in Hannover.
