Serbia men's national water polo team

Serbia
FINA code	SRB
Nickname(s)	Делфини / Delfini; (The Dolphins)
Association	[sr]
Confederation	LEN (Europe)
Head coach	Dejan Savić
Asst coach	Stefan Ćirić; Vladimir Vujasinović
Captain	Filip Filipović
Most caps	Dejan Savić (444)
Top scorer(s)	Aleksandar Šapić (981)
FINA ranking (since 2008)
Current	3 (as of 9 August 2021)
Highest	1 (2009–2011, 2014–2019)
Lowest	4 (2013)
Olympic Games (team statistics)
Appearances	6 (first in 1996)
Best result	(2016, 2020)
World Championship
Appearances	11 (first in 1998)
Best result	(2005, 2009, 2015)
World Cup
Appearances	7 (first in 1997)
Best result	(2006, 2010, 2014)
World League
Appearances	15 (first in 2003)
Best result	(2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)
European Championship
Appearances	12 (first in 1997)
Best result	(2001, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018)
Europa Cup
Appearances	2 (first in 2018)
Best result	4th (2018)
Mediterranean Games
Appearances	6 (first in 1997)
Best result	(1997, 2009, 2018)
Media
Website	waterpoloserbia.org
Medal record
Men's water polo
Representing FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro / Serbia
Olympic Games
World Championship
FINA World Cup
FINA World League
European Championship
Mediterranean Games
Summer Universiade

Logo of the [sr]

2015 world champions on a 2015 Serbian stamp

The Serbia men's national water polo team represents Serbia in international water polo competitions and is controlled by the [sr]. They have won gold medals in the Olympics, World and European Championships, World Cup, FINA World League, Mediterranean Games and Universiade, making them one of the most successful men's water polo teams in the world.

They are Serbia's most successful national team, having won more titles than all other Serbian national teams combined.^[1] In 2016, they became the first team to hold titles in all five existing major championships: European Championship, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Olympic Games simultaneously.^[2]

Competitive record[]

Medals[]

Includes matches of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia.

Updated after the 2020 Summer Olympics

Competition				Total
Olympic Games	2	1	3	6
World Championship	3	2	3	8
World Cup	3	0	2	5
World League	12	1	1	14
European Championship	7	2	1	10
Europa Cup	0	0	0	0
Mediterranean Games	3	0	1	4
Summer Universiade	4	1	2	7
Total	34	7	13	54

Olympic Games[]

Year^[3]	Position
1936 to 1988	Part of SFR Yugoslavia
as FR Yugoslavia
1992 Barcelona	Suspended
1996 Atlanta	8th
2000 Sydney
as Serbia and Montenegro
2004 Athens
as Serbia
2008 Beijing
2012 London
2016 Rio de Janeiro
2020 Tokyo
2024 Paris	Future events
2028 Los Angeles
2032 Brisbane

World Championship[]

Year^[3]	Position
1973 to 1991	Part of SFR Yugoslavia
as FR Yugoslavia
1994 Rome	Suspended
1998 Perth
2001 Fukuoka
as Serbia and Montenegro
2003 Barcelona
2005 Montreal
as Serbia
2007 Melbourne	4th
2009 Rome
2011 Shanghai
2013 Barcelona	7th
2015 Kazan
2017 Budapest
2019 Gwangju	5th
2022 Fukuoka	Future events

World Cup[]

Year^[3]	Position
1979 to 1991	Part of SFR Yugoslavia
as FR Yugoslavia
1993 Athens	Suspended
1995 Atlanta	Did not participate
1997 Athens	7th
1999 Sydney	5th
2002 Belgrade
as Serbia and Montenegro
2006 Budapest
as Serbia
2010 Oradea
2014 Almaty
2018 Berlin

World League[]

Year^[3]	Position
as FR Yugoslavia
2002 Patras	Did not participate
as Serbia and Montenegro
2003 New York	4th
2004 Long Beach
2005 Belgrade
2006 Athens
as Serbia
2007 Berlin
2008 Genoa
2009 Podgorica
2010 Niš
2011 Florence
2012 Almaty	Did not participate
2013 Chelyabinsk
2014 Dubai
2015 Bergamo
2016 Huizhou
2017 Ruza
2018 Budapest	Preliminary round
2019 Belgrade
2020 Tbilisi	Preliminary round

European Championship[]

Year	Position
1950 to 1991	Part of SFR Yugoslavia
as FR Yugoslavia
1993 Sheffield	Suspended
1995 Vienna	Did not participate
1997 Seville
1999 Florence	7th
2001 Budapest
as Serbia and Montenegro
2003 Kranj
as Serbia
2006 Belgrade
2008 Malaga
2010 Zagreb
2012 Eindhoven
2014 Budapest
2016 Belgrade
2018 Barcelona
2020 Budapest	5th
2022 Split	Future event

Europa Cup[]

Year	Position
2018 Rijeka	4th
2019 Zagreb	6th

Mediterranean Games[]

Year	Position
1959 to 1991	Part of SFR Yugoslavia
as FR Yugoslavia
1993 Languedoc-Roussillon	Suspended
1997 Bari
2001 Tunis	4th
as Serbia and Montenegro
2005 Almeria
as Serbia
2009 Pescara
2013 Tunis	6th
2018 Tarragona
	Future event

Team[]

Current squad[]

Roster for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Head coach: Dejan Savić^[4]


No.	Player	Pos.	L/R	Height	Weight	Date of birth (age)	Apps	OG/ Goals	Club	Ref
1	Gojko Pijetlović	10GK	2R	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	92 kg (203 lb)	(1983-08-07)7 August 1983 (aged 37)	270	2/0	Novi Beograd	^[5]
2	Dušan Mandić	50D	1L	2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)	105 kg (231 lb)	(1994-06-16)16 June 1994 (aged 27)	194	2/13	Novi Beograd	^[6]
3	Nikola Dedović	50D	2R	1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)	92 kg (203 lb)	(1992-01-25)25 January 1992 (aged 29)	29	0/0	Spandau 04	^[7]
4	Sava Ranđelović	20CB	2R	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	98 kg (216 lb)	(1993-07-17)17 July 1993 (aged 28)	166	1/2	Vasas	^[8]
5	Đorđe Lazić	40CF	2R	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	95 kg (209 lb)	(1996-05-19)19 May 1996 (aged 25)	34	0/0	Brescia	^[9]
6	Duško Pijetlović	40CF	2R	1.97 m (6 ft 6 in)	97 kg (214 lb)	(1985-04-25)25 April 1985 (aged 36)	452	3/29	Novi Beograd	^[10]
7	Strahinja Rašović	50D	2R	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)	85 kg (187 lb)	(1992-03-09)9 March 1992 (aged 29)	84	0/0	Novi Beograd	^[11]
8	Milan Aleksić	20CB	2R	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	96 kg (212 lb)	(1986-05-13)13 May 1986 (aged 35)	259	2/9	Partizan	^[12]
9	Nikola Jakšić	20CB	2R	1.97 m (6 ft 6 in)	91 kg (201 lb)	(1997-01-17)17 January 1997 (aged 24)	99	1/4	Novi Beograd	^[13]
10	Filip Filipović (C)	50D	1L	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)	101 kg (223 lb)	(1987-05-02)2 May 1987 (aged 34)	652	3/41	Olympiacos	^[14]
11	Andrija Prlainović	50D	2R	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)	93 kg (205 lb)	(1987-04-28)28 April 1987 (aged 34)	325	3/31	Marseille	^[15]
12	Stefan Mitrović	50D	2R	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)	91 kg (201 lb)	(1988-03-29)29 March 1988 (aged 33)	256	2/18	Partizan	^[16]
13	Branislav Mitrović	10GK	2R	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)	100 kg (220 lb)	(1985-01-30)30 January 1985 (aged 36)	163	1/0	Vasas	^[17]
Average				1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	95 kg (209 lb)	31 years, 234 days	229

Note: Age as of 23 July 2021
Source: Serbia Men | Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Coaches[]

1992–1999 Nikola Stamenić
1999–2004 Nenad Manojlović
2004–2006 Petar Porobić
2006–2012 Dejan Udovičić
2012–present Dejan Savić

Most appearances and goals[]

Professional friendly and competitive matches only where Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro and now Serbia were represented.

	Name	Years	Matches	Goals
1	Dejan Savić	1994–2008	444	405
2	Aleksandar Šapić	1997–2008	385	981
3	Filip Filipović	2003–2021	381	677
4	Živko Gocić	2003–2016	362	207
5	Slobodan Nikić	2003–2016	355	354
6	Igor Milanović	1984–1996	349	540
7	Aleksandar Ćirić	1997–2008	346	201
8	Vladimir Vujasinović	1990–2008	341	391
9	Duško Pijetlović	2005–2021	340	472
10	Andrija Prlainović	2005–2021	336	541

Statistics accurate as of matches played 6 August 2021

Philanthropy[]

On 25 December 2011, Serbia's water polo team was included in a humanitarian action "Bitka za Bebe" ("the Battle for the Babies") playing an exhibition match with the team of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON), in Belgrade. Before the Serbian water polo team had joined the action, many other athletes were included. Among them was the world number one in tennis at that time, Novak Djokovic, football and basketball players of Red Star Belgrade, and many others. Proceeds from the ticket sales went to fund "Bitka za Bebe" and enough money was successfully raised to purchase one incubator.

References[]

^ https://www.waterpoloserbia.org/index.php?id=454
^ "Rulers of all competitions". b92.net. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. pp. 4, 14, 25, 40, 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
^ "Water Polo - SAVIC Dejan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "PIJETLOVIC Gojko". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "MANDIC Dusan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "DEDOVIC Nikola". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "RANDELOVIC Sava". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "LAZIC Dorde". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "PIJETLOVIC Dusko". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "RASOVIC Strahinja". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "ALEKSIC Milan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "JAKSIC Nikola". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "FILIPOVIC Filip". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "PRLAINOVIC Andrija". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "MITROVIC Stefan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^ "MITROVIC Branislav". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

External links[]

Official website (in Serbian)

[1] ttps://www.waterpoloserbia.org/index.php?id=454

[2] "Rulers of all competitions". b92.net. Retrieved 1 March 2018.

[HistoFINA_PDF-3] "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. pp. 4, 14, 25, 40, 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.

[4] "Water Polo - SAVIC Dejan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[5] "PIJETLOVIC Gojko". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[6] "MANDIC Dusan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[7] "DEDOVIC Nikola". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[8] "RANDELOVIC Sava". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[9] "LAZIC Dorde". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[10] "PIJETLOVIC Dusko". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[11] "RASOVIC Strahinja". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[12] "ALEKSIC Milan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[13] "JAKSIC Nikola". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[14] "FILIPOVIC Filip". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[15] "PRLAINOVIC Andrija". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[16] "MITROVIC Stefan". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

[17] "MITROVIC Branislav". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

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v t Awards of Olympic Committee of Serbia
Sportsman of The Year	1994: Stevan Pletikosić 1995: Aleksandar Đorđević 1996: Vladimir Grbić 1997: Nikola Grbić 1998: Dejan Bodiroga 1999: Nedeljko Jovanović 2000: Vladimir Grbić 2001: Aleksandar Šoštar 2002: Dejan Bodiroga 2003: Milorad Čavić 2004: Aleksandar Šapić 2005: Vladimir Vujasinović 2006: Nikola Stojić 2007: Novak Djokovic 2008: Milorad Čavić 2009: Milorad Čavić 2010: Novak Djokovic 2011: Novak Djokovic 2012: Andrija Prlainović 2013: Novak Djokovic 2014: Novak Djokovic 2015: Novak Djokovic 2016: Filip Filipović 2017: Milenko Zorić & Marko Tomićević 2018: Novak Djokovic 2019: Novak Djokovic 2020: Novak Djokovic 2021: Filip Filipović
Sportswoman of The Year	1994: Jasna Šekarić 1995: Jasna Šekarić 1996: Aleksandra Ivošev 1997: Jasna Šekarić 1998: Olivera Jevtić 1999: Olivera Jevtić 2000: Jasna Šekarić 2001: Jelena Dokić 2002: Mara Kovačević 2003: Silvija Erdelji 2004: Jasna Šekarić 2005: Jasna Šekarić 2006: Olivera Jevtić 2007: Jelena Janković 2008: Jelena Janković 2009: Nađa Higl 2010: Zorana Arunović 2011: Jovana Brakočević 2012: Milica Mandić 2013: Ivana Španović 2014: Nikolina Moldovan 2015: Ivana Španović 2016: Tijana Bogdanović 2017: Milica Mandić 2018: Tijana Bošković 2019: Tijana Bošković 2020: Bobana Veličković 2021: Jovana Preković
Men's Team of The Year	1995: Basketball team 1996: Basketball team 1997: Basketball team 1998: Basketball team 1999: Handball team 2000: Voleyball team 2001: Water polo team 2002: Basketball team 2003: Water polo team 2004: Water polo team 2005: Water polo team 2006: Water polo team 2007: Water polo team 2008: Water polo team 2009: Water polo team 2010: Voleyball team 2011: Water polo team 2012: Water polo team 2013: Voleyball team 2014: Basketball team 2015: Water polo team 2016: Water polo team 2017: Water polo team 2018: 3x3 basketball team 2019: Voleyball team 2021: Water polo team
Women's Team of The Year	1995: Shooting team 1996: Karate club "Soko Štark" 1997: Karate club "Knjaz Miloš" 1998: Handball club "Budućnost" 1999: Chess team 2001: Handball team 2005: Junior basketball team 2006: Volleyball team 2007: Volleyball team 2008: Volleyball team 2009: Volleyball team 2010: Volleyball team 2011: Volleyball team 2012: Fed Cup team 2013: Handball team 2015: Basketball team 2016: Volleyball team 2017: Volleyball team 2018: Volleyball team 2019: Volleyball team 2021: Volleyball team
Young Athlete of The Year	2010: Velimir Stjepanović 2011: Uroš Kovačević 2012: Dušan Mandić 2013: Andrija Šljukić 2014: Nemanja Majdov 2015: Tijana Bogdanović 2016: Nikola Jakšić 2017: Tijana Bošković 2018: 2019: 2020: 2021: Adriana Vilagoš
Coach of The Year	2009: Dejan Udovičić 2010: Marián Vajda 2011: Marián Vajda 2012: Dragan Jović 2013: Saša Bošković 2014: Dragan Plavšić 2015: Dejan Savić 2016: Dejan Savić 2017: Dragan Jović 2018: Zoran Terzić 2019: Slobodan Kovač 2020: Jasna Šekarić 2021: Dragan Jović

v t Men's national water polo teams of Europe (LEN)
Current teams	Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia France Georgia Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine
Defunct teams	Czechoslovakia East Germany Serbia and Montenegro Soviet Union Yugoslavia