October 2, 2020 - The Croatian Water Polo Championships return this weekend for the 20th season!

Dalmacija Danas reports that the smell of chlorine will once again fill the air this weekend as Croatian water polo clubs embark on a new journey to become champion. In the 19 championships so far, the most successful club with 16 titles is Jug Dubrovnik, which has also dominated Croatian pools in recent years.

Mladost was at its peak in the nineties and boasts 10 national championships. Primorje has won the championship twice in recent history, while only one Split club has managed to do so, and that is the Zenta club in 1998. A year later, the water polo club Posk became the European champion under the name Slobodna Dalmacija.

Last season, Mladost took the title of Adriatic League champions, and Jug once again became the champions of Croatia. Jug and Mladost should stay at the top this season as well.

The first part of the championship will be played in one round, and the second part in two groups before the teams meet in a"playoff" round.

This year, Jadran celebrated its 100th anniversary. Modestly, however, with only thirty people at dinner at Zvoncac. Last year, they played in the Champions League, which was interrupted and never resumed, as if it never happened. Jadran usually always sits behind Jug and Mladost in Croatia. 

At the end of last season, they had many departures and instead brought in several players from the younger categories, as the youth generation of the club is improving. Two, maybe three juniors will compete for the first team. After Ivan Asic, the first team is led by Mile Smodlaka (44) and sports director Dejan Savicevic. They are hoping for the Champions League this year as well, but first, they will have to do well at the qualifying tournament in Sicily, in Syracuse, in November. Their first-round match will be played in Split, on Saturday against Zadar at 7:30 pm.

Mornar celebrated 70 years last year and has their own story, though it was much better when Brodospas sponsored the club. But that was a long time ago. The first team coach is still Danijel Buric, who managed to keep only the center Buzdovacic for this season, who is a veteran in the team at the age of 29. Marin Vrdoljak, who is 21, has returned from Jadran, while the remaining team members are very young. The first round will also be played on Saturday at Poljud, the start of the match is at 6 pm, against Galeb.

Posk has a rejuvenated team. The coach remains Mirsad Zajmovic, who, along with Skolnekovic's son, will try to keep the club alive. The first round will be played in Rijeka against Primorje this Saturday at 8 pm.

The Croatian league has 11 clubs this season, and after 35 years, KPK returns to the elite Croatian competition. KPK is a Korcula club with a long tradition and rich water polo history. They have a new pool, old fame, and a lot of enthusiasm.

The regional league will be played sometime next year, according to the tournament system. Unfortunately, fans are not yet allowed to watch from the stands. 

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July 23, 2020 - In the second match of the playoff finals for the Croatian champion, played on Wednesday night in Zagreb, Dubrovnik's Jug AO were better than the home team Mladost in yet another penalty shootout and celebrated 13-11 (2-2, 3-3, 4-2, 1-3, 3-1) to take the 2-0 lead in the series to three wins.

HRT reports that the match ended in a 10-10 draw, and Jug goalkeeper Toni Popadic brought the Dubrovnik club the victory in the shootout with two crucial saves.

During regulation time, Jug's best scorer was Loren Fatovic with five goals, Alexandros Papanastasiou scored three, and Luka Loncar and Filip Krzic scored one goal each. Mladost's top scorer was Lovre Milos with four goals, Matias Biljaka scored two, and Milos Cuk, Luka Bukic, Franko Lazic and Konstantin Harkov scored one goal each.

After a tie game during the first two quarters, Jug created a three-goal lead in the third quarter (9-6), but the home team responded with a four-goal streak and took a 10-9 lead two and a half minutes before the end.

In the remaining time, only Filip Krzic managed to get past Mladost goalkeeper Marcelic to equalize at 10-10. Mladost had an attack to win, but the crossbar stopped Bowen's shot, so, just like in the first game, the winner was decided in a penalty shootout.

Here, the Dubrovnik team showed much more precision, and their goalkeeper Toni Popadic stopped the shots of Bukic and Lazic, while Bowen hit the crossbar. Thus, Jug took a 2-0 lead in the final series, and in three days, Vjekoslav Kobescak's team will have the opportunity to win the Croatian championship title for the fifth time in a row, and for the 16th time in total.

The third game of the finals is scheduled for Saturday, starting at 8:15 pm, and will be played in Dubrovnik at the Gruz swimming pool.

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July 19, 2020 - In the first game of the Croatian Championship finals, which took place in Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik water polo club Jug defeated Zagreb's Mladost with a better performance in the penalty shootout for a score of 18-16 (5-2, 4-4, 3-4, 1-3 - 5-3) to lead the series 1:0.

HRT reports that Mladost did not have the strength to beat Jug twice in Dubrovnik in just four days after they celebrated to win the Adriatic Regional League title on Wednesday. The Dubrovnik team started the match much better and were up by three points at half time. Mladost was also left without their best player, Milos Cuk, due to a penalty. However, the Zagreb club proved to be more physically prepared again, gained an advantage, and scored five points before the end of the match with a goal by American player Alex Bowen.

In the penalty shootout, all five players of Jug hit the net, while Jug goalkeeper Popadic defended Luka Bukic's shot.

Hrvoje Benic scored five goals for Jug, while Luka Bukic, Konstantin Harkov and Alex Bowen scored three goals each for Mladost.

The finals feature the only two clubs with a double-digit number of Croatian championships won - Jug has 15 titles, and Mladost 10.

The second match will be played in Zagreb, on July 22, starting at 6:45 PM, and the third match will be in Dubrovnik on July 25 (8:15 PM). Possible fourth and fifth matches will be played in Zagreb on July 29 and Dubrovnik on August 2.

Jadran Split and Solaris Sibenik met for the first game in the series for 3rd place on Saturday night at the outdoor Zvoncac pool in Split. The Split club defeated Solaris 13:9. The two clubs will meet for the second match on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Sibenik. 

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July 16, 2020 - Zagreb's Mladost defended the title of the Adriatic Regional League, defeating the host Jug AO Dubrovnik 15-11 (3-2, 3-5, 7-2, 2-2) in the final played at the open swimming pool in Dubrovnik's Gruz.

HRT reports that Mladost reached their second title in this competition primarily with a great third quarter, which they won 7-2. The team from Zagreb managed to neutralize Loren Fatovic, who scored as many as five goals in the first two quarters, while the other players of the home team were utterly harmless in the attack.

On the other hand, Harkov filled Popadic's net with three goals and Cuk with two long-range shots. Perhaps the critical moment of the game happened in the middle of the third quarter, more precisely with the 10-8 result for Mladost, when the referees assessed that after Papanastasiou's shot, the ball did not cross the goal line, although the impression is that the Jug center scored.

The most efficient player for Mladost was Serbian player Milos Cuk with five goals, Konstantin Harkov added three, Alexander Bowen and Lovre Miloc scored two, and Cosmin Radu, Luka Bukic and Josip Vrlic scored one goal each. Loren Fatovic scored six times for Jug AO, though no one else scored more than one goal, including Filip Krzic, Danil Merkulov, Marko Zuvela, Hrvoje Benic and Paulo Obradovic. Ivan Marcelic was also great at the gates of Mladost with 14 saves.

Jug AO and Mladost will soon start the final series of the playoffs for the title of Croatian champion. The champion will be the team that is the first to achieve three victories, and the first game on the program is on Saturday in Dubrovnik.

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July 15, 2020 - Zagreb water polo club Mladost and Dubrovnik's Jug AO have advanced to the final of the Adriatic Regional League, which is being held at the Gruz swimming pool in Dubrovnik.

HRT reports that Jug AO was better than Jadran Split with a convincing score of 19-11 (5-2, 4-2, 6-3, 4-4). Dubrovnik was led by Hrvoje Benic, who scored five goals, and Loren Fatovic and Marin Tomasovic, who scored three goals each, while Antonio Duzevic and Zvonimir Butic were the best for Jadran, scoring three goals each.

As hosts, the Dubrovnik club confirmed their status as favorites and had no problems reaching the victory. Jug furiously started the meeting and gave the Split club little hope from the beginning. 

Until the middle of the first quarter, Jadran stayed afloat, losing 3-2 with two attacks to equalize, but Toni Popadic stopped the attempts of Marin Delic and Andelo Setka.

With the goals of Lozina, Benic and Obradovic, Jug went to 6-2, and even then, it was clear that Jadran would struggle to return to the game.

The host continued to increase their advantage and had the highest in the last quarter when a goal by Marin Tomasovic made it 18-8. By the end, Jadran managed to reduce the gap to the final 19-11.

The title defenders Mladost Zagreb met in the first semi-final match, defeating Jadran Carine from Herceg Novi with a score of 14-12 (1-3, 3-3, 6-4, 4-2). The Zagreb team came to victory in the second half after the Montenegrins won the first half 6-4.

The absolute hero of the duel was Luka Bukic, who scored an impressive seven goals for Mladost, while Milos Cuk added two, and Cosmin Radu, Konstantin Harkov, Josip Vrlic and Lovre Milos added one each. Vladan Spajic was the best for the Herceg Novi club with four goals.

Jug will thus fight for their fifth title, while Mladost will try to defend the title they won in the 2018/2019 season. 

The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 pm in Dubrovnik.

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July 2, 2020 - The semifinal round of the Croatian Water Polo Championships kicked off on Wednesday in Dubrovnik and Zagreb. Jug met Solaris, while Mladost met Jadran. 

Dubrovnik's Jug AO and Zagreb's Mladost achieved victories in the first matches of the semifinals of the Croatian Championship on Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

The famous Dubrovnik side topped Solaris Sibenik 17-6 at the Gruz swimming pool, while Mladost was better than Jadran Split 13-12 at the Mladost outdoor swimming pool along the Sava.

Interestingly, Solaris took a 2-0 lead, but Jug equalized to 2-2 by the end of the first quarter, and then won the second and third quarters 10-2. The Dubrovnik side was convincing in the last period with 5-2, for the final score of 17-6.

Jug AO was led to victory by Obradovic, who scored six goals, and Fatovic, who scored three goals. Solaris, on the other hand, had six players who scored one goal each. The second match of this semifinal meeting will be played on Friday, July 3, in Sibenik.

In the second semifinal match on Wednesday, Jadran met Mladost in Zagreb. 

Mladost led 4-0 lead, and at the beginning of the last quarter, they were up by five goals (10-5). However, a rocky ending gave the Zagreb club a narrow victory. Jadran managed a score of 7-3 in the last quarter, threatening Mladost's secure celebration.

Mladost was led to victory by Cuk, who scored four goals, while Harkov scored three goals, and Milos and Bukic scored two goals each. Setka was the best for Jadran with four goals, and Krapic followed with three goals to be the most efficient among the visiting team.

The second semifinal match is on Saturday in Split.

Recall, two victories are needed in the semifinal round to secure a spot in the final. Thus, a third semifinal game is theoretically possible.

Source: HRT

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March 5, 2020 - Jadran Split, Jug Dubrovnik, and Mladost Zagreb featured in the LEN Champions League 10th round this week. 

Mladost opened the LEN Champions League 10th round for Croatian clubs in Group B with a win against Waspo Hannover (18-12) on Tuesday and is one step closer to reaching the Final Eight.

Luka Bukic and Lovre Milos were the best for Mladost with four goals each, while Hanover was led by Aleksandar Radovic, also with four goals.

OSC Budapest leads Group B with 22 points, Ferencvaros and Pro Recco have 20 points each and a match less, while Mladost is fourth with 19 points.

These clubs are followed by Terrassa with 13 points, Marseille with 10, Waspo Hannover with six, and in the last place is Dinamo Tbilisi with three points.

In Group A, Jadran Split defeated Hungarian club Szolnoki 13-9 (3-1, 5-2, 2-4, 3-2) at Poljud on Tuesday

Jadran Split was led by Nathan Power with three goals, while Duje Pejkovic and Ivan Krapic scored two each. Radomir Drasovic was the best for Szolnoki with four goals.

The second representative in Group A, Jug Dubrovnik, beat Sintez Kazan 14-10 and at least temporarily takes the top spot in the standings. 

Jug led from the first minute and never lost an advantage against the weakest team in the group.

Vjekoslav Kobescak’s team was up by four goals on several occasions, with the visitors having the greatest lead at the beginning of the last quarter when it was 10-5.

Jug was led by Loren Fatovic with five goals, while Javier Garcia and Hrvoje Benic scored two goals each. The most efficient for Sintez was Adel Latipov, Sergei Lisunov and Nikolai Lazarev with three goals each.

Jug leads Group A with 24 points, followed by Barceloneta with 22 points, who also has a game less, while Olympiacos is in third with 19 points and the match is less.

The 11th round of the LEN Champions League will be played from April 10-11.

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February 23, 2020 - Mladost Zagreb, Jug Dubrovnik, and Jadran Split played in the 9th round of the LEN Champions League this week.

Mladost Zagreb lost to current European champion Ferencvaros 6-9 (0-2, 1-2, 3-3, 2-2) in the LEN Champions League 9th round game in Group B, played at the Sava Pool on Thursday.

Lovre Milos and Konstantin Kharkov scored two goals for Mladost, while Marton Vamos and Nicolas Constantin-Bicari scored two each for Ferencvaros.

Mladost missed the opportunity to increase the score in the first two quarters when they scored just one goal. On the other hand, the Budapest club scored the first two goals of the game at the very end of the first quarter and took control of the match.

Thanks to goals by Kharkov and Milos at the very beginning of the third quarter, Mladost was down by one (3-4), but Ferencvaros responded via Constantin-Bicari and Varga and returned to a three-goal advantage.

In the final quarter, after Bukic's goal for 5-7, there was a confrontation between Biljaka and Jansik. After long deliberation, the referees decided to punish Mladost with a player less for four minutes. The game thus ended 6-9.

With the away win against Szolnok 16:12 (4:4, 5:3, 5:3, 2:2), Jug Dubrovnik returned to second place in Group A. Recall, Jug was behind the leading Barceloneta, who beat Olympiakos away 15-9.

Jug dominated from the beginning of the match and started with a 3-0 lead. Szolnok was in trouble early. Still, by the end of the first quarter, Szolnok recovered and equalized at 4-4.

Jug did not allow the Hungarian club to get ahead at any point in the game - and was up 8-5 with a 3-0 series. From that point on, Jug had an easy finish for the 16-12 result.

Toni Popadic made 13 saves for Jug, while Loren Fatovic and Hrvoje Benic scored four goals each. Daniel Angyal, Gavril Subotic, David Jansik, and Radomir Drasovic scored two goals each for Szolnok.

With this victory, Jug directly helped Jadran Herceg Novi, who is now fourth place in Group A. That win came against Jadran Split (14-11).

Namely, Jadran Herceg Novi achieved a crucial victory against Jadran Split. With a 14-11 score, they continue the fight for the final eight.

Jadran Split held their own until the final quarter, in what was otherwise a fair fight. The Montenegrin club eventually celebrated in the end.

Petar Tesanovic led Jadran Herceg Novi with 15 saves, while Uros Vucurovic scored five goals and Konstantin Averka scored three. For Jadran Split, Andelo Setka scored three goals, while van Domagoj Zovic, Duje Pejkovic and Ante Viskovic scored two.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.

February 6, 2020 - The eighth round of the LEN Champions League was held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, featuring Croatian clubs Jug, Jadran, and Mladost.

The Jug Adriatic water polo team has made a big step towards the final eight after defeating Olympiacos 13:9 in the eighth round of Group A of the Champions League group stage, beating the Greek champions for the first time.

The Dubrovnik squad booked a decisive victory against the 2019 European finalist, and the key was the second quarter, which Jug won 5:1.

Olympiakos led 3:1, but Jug woke up and scored six goals in a row to lead 7:3. At half time, Vjekoslav Kobešćak's team had a five-goal advantage (9:4) and, in the continuation of the match, managed to maintain their edge.

Paulo Obradovic, Loren Fatovic and Luka Loncar each contributed to the win with three goals, while Toni Popadic was excellent in goal. The most efficient for Olympiacos was Maro Jokovic and Stefan Mitrovic with two goals each.

In the second match of this group, Jadran lost to Barceloneta 12:16 away and recorded their sixth defeat. The Split team held up well in the first three quarters and were losing 10:11 in the final eight minutes. However, Barceloneta was better 5:2 in the last quarter.

Alvaro Granados was the most efficient for Barceloneta with five goals and Alexandre Bodegas scored four goals, while Rino Buric, Ivan Domagoj Zovic, and Nathan Power were the best for Jadran with two goals each.

Barceloneta and Olympiacos are tied for the top spot in Group A with 19 points, while Jug is in second place with 18 points.

The third Croatian representative in the Champions League, Mladost Zagreb, defeated Marseille 14:11 as a guest in the 8th round of Group B of the Champions League.

Mladost is fourth in the rankings with 16 points, the same number of points as OSC in third, while Marseille is in sixth with nine points. At the top is Pro Recco with 20 points and Ferencvaros with 17 points.

You can see the full LEN Champions League table here.

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January 14, 2020 - Continuing our 'TCN Down Under' series, Daniela Rogulj interviews former Jug captain and assistant coach to Croatia, and current Australia water polo coach Elvis Fatovic in Sydney. 

On a sunny Wednesday morning, Elvis Fatovic and I met in the Bronte neighborhood of Sydney, in front of Australia's famous Iggy's Bread, owned by Igor Ivanovic of Belgrade. It was the Bronte Balkan experience, as passersby greeted us in Croatian and spoke of preparing sarma for Orthodox Christmas. We were served freshly-baked bread and hot coffee to complement the Bajadera I brought over from Split.

For a moment, I'd almost forgotten where we were.

After exchanging sentences mixed in English and Croatian, Elvis shared his life story about how he, a Croatian water polo legend from Cavtat, moved his life to Sydney to lead the national team of Australia. 

Elvis hails from Cavtat, just 30 minutes south of Dubrovnik. Water polo is the pulse of that area, and Elvis grew up in Jug Dubrovnik’s youth system. 

“That is the natural path. Cavtat is probably one of the smallest, most successful water polo towns in the world. For example, in the London Olympics, you had three gold Olympians from Cavtat. Sukno, Boskovic, Obradovic are all from the area. 

In Cavtat as a kid, you have two options - one is to play water polo, and the other is to play in the brass orchestra. And I’ve done both, haha.  But I thought that I was more talented in sport, and at some stage, you have to decide which way you want to go. It’s also common that the more talented players follow the steps of the successful players and move to Dubrovnik, so that is how I ended up in Dubrovnik. Water polo then was very big; we are talking about the ‘80s, a long time ago when Jug won the first European Champions League title. It was hard not to fall in love with the sport. 

It was crazy to watch, and during that time, 4-5,000 people would be at every game. 

Thankfully I had quite a solid career. It’s a dream for the majority of water polo players to play for a great club in your city, and I had that privilege."

From Jug, Elvis played one season at rival club Mladost Zagreb. 

“Yes, that was one season when a lot of things happened in my life. It was after the war, and Jug was at a good level but without a light at the end of the tunnel. It didn’t seem like something big was going to happen. Because of my career, I went to Mladost. Before that, I refused to go to Italy, and at the beginning of the ‘90s, I preferred staying in Dubrovnik, but then I decided okay, it’s time to take a step in my career.  The best part of that was that I met my wife in Zagreb. Though she is not from Zagreb, she’s from Primosten. Not only did we meet there, but it was quite a successful time for the club, and I also met some of the greatest friends I could have, like Vjeko Kobešćak. After that season, my wife and I married and had kids.

Around '94/'95, Jug started to build something great. It was the beginning of the Jug we have now.”

While Elvis played for Jug, they won 5 Croatian Championships and 6 Croatian Cups. He also led Jug to win the European Championship in 2001 and 2006, and won the LEN Europa Cup in 2000.

“The highlight was definitely winning that first European Championship. We played in the old pool, in front of 5,000-6,000 people. I can’t imagine it ever being so packed again. We played against Bečej, which was a Serbian club. In that period, they were an unbelievable team and a big rival. In two years, they didn’t lose a single game. We beat them with a buzzer goal, which I scored, and that was probably the highlight of my career."

What was it like living in Dubrovnik in the middle of Jug's success?

“It was amazing. During that time, athletes were like celebrities. Especially because Jug wasn’t so successful before, and that’s probably part of the reason why maybe even fewer people follow them now. Winning has become the norm, the people expect it, so maybe Jug needs to lose for a while in order to bring the people back, haha. But no one wants that. 

At that time, the majority of the players were from Dubrovnik, and the people really followed us. When we played in Hungary, students from Zagreb would follow us - they’d even travel to Italy. It was extraordinary to be a part of that story.”

We switched gears to the Croatia national team, where Elvis had 128 appearances. Elvis spoke about the moments that stood out. 

“To be honest, I wasn’t the happiest with my national team career because there was a huge gap. I didn’t start playing for Croatia until when I was almost 28, and that's because of a situation when I moved from Mladost to Jug. But even so, I played two Olympic Games and we won the European silver, which was also great. I think, even as a national team player, I had more disappointment than greatness. Especially in the two Olympic Games when we were one of the favorites to win the gold medal. Here in Sydney, during the most crucial moments, half of the team had the flu, and we lost the quarterfinal game, and that was an enormous disappointment. As a player, you need at least six months to recover from that.”

Elvis finished his career as a player in 2007 and moved onto coaching. But was a coaching career always in his cards?

“It probably was because I captained Jug for ten years and was the right hand of the head coach. We always joked about the staff positions the senior players would take and more or less, everything happened that way. I was always interested in that job and one of the youngest coaches to ever lead Jug. I was the coach of the junior program for one year, and then immediately after, I became the head coach.

At the same time, as I became head coach of Jug, I became the assistant coach of Croatia under Ratko Rudić. It was a fantastic experience to work with someone like Ratko. It’s one thing when you are a player, another when you are the assistant, but it is completely different when you are the head coach. And I am so grateful that I had the chance to work with the best one. Ratko is the most successful coach in the history of water polo, and maybe not only water polo - perhaps of all sports. It was great to learn and see how the game is not only about the tactics; it is about many other things aside from that.”

Croatia water polo won the gold at the 2012 Olympics. Elvis was the assistant coach then. 

“I believe that 2012 was not only about the summer when we won gold. It’s even more important for us, especially with our Croatian mentality, to look at what happened in January that same year. We played the European Championship and finished 9th. We lost so many games and were not performing well, and that was a huge disappointment, but it happened at the right time. We had seven months to set our goals and prepare, and if you ask me, that was perhaps the key to Croatia's success."

After a fruitful period as the assistant coach of Croatia, Elvis was asked to be the head coach of Australia. He moved to Sydney in 2013. 

“For me, as a coach, I needed some time to adjust to everything, because it is entirely different here than in Europe. Europe and Australia have nothing common when looking at the sport, and to be honest, I didn’t expect much. The priority of the players is also different. The majority of them do not play professionally. I had to adjust the training, to read their priorities. It is also different here because there is a significant difference between the Olympics and any other competition, and I believe it shouldn’t be that way. In Australia, the Olympics are huge. 

The most important thing for Australia is to keep consistency with the players. We managed that in the last couple of years and were able to deliver some great results, especially in the previous two years. We have become very competitive with everyone. I think there is still a considerable difference in the approach here and there are definitely a lot of advantages in the European teams, especially with how the national leagues are set up and how much time the teams spend together. If you try to explain to someone how it works in Australia, the majority won’t believe you. I am really enjoying working with the players here. They are a little bit different than us, so when they have a session at 5 or 6 am, they don’t complain, and they do it properly. They don’t just show up. I respect that a lot and I love working with them.”

Elvis has led Australia against Croatia multiple times since 2013. The first time was in the quarterfinal of the World Championships in 2013, while the two nations most recently met at the test series in Sydney last December. Elvis spoke about the emotions that come with facing his homeland. 

“The first time was a bit weird and that was the game when we almost beat them in Barcelona. No one expected that. Croatia came as the Olympic champion and we lost in overtime. It was strange, but you are focused on your team, your performance, as that is your professional job, and from that point of view, that was the first time and maybe the hardest time. Things maybe changed a bit for me when my son joined the Croatia national team - and he always looks especially inspired when they play against us. But again, we beat them last year once, which was a great success for us as we beat them in the quarterfinal of the World Cup. If we talk about quality, Croatia is always in the top two, and they really showed us that in the World Championship this year when they demolished us, even though we were very keen to beat them that game. But okay, that was our bad game and their great game. I respect Croatia as a team a lot, but on the other hand, we will always try to win.”

Elvis is leading Australia to the Olympics for his second time. What are the expectations in Tokyo?

“I want to take it game by game, because if we say ‘we will win the gold’, that is too easy to talk about and a lot harder to do. On paper, you have many stronger teams. On the other hand, I believe the gap between the strongest teams (Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Hungary) and the rest of us is smaller. When there is the special pressure of the Olympics, I believe that anything is possible. I want us to keep progressing. 60-70% of our team has been together for the last 6-7 years, which makes a difference, and I just hope we can keep delivering the results we have over the last few years.”

All eyes are on the European Championships this month. Croatia needs to win the tournament qualify for the Olympics. What do they need to do to make this happen?

“There is just one spot for the Olympics to be won at the Euros. Three teams are coming without pressure - that’s Italy, Serbia, and Spain. Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, and Greece are looking for that one spot. Especially Hungary, who is playing at home. Hungary has a pretty good looking road to the semifinal. Still, I believe that Croatia has a great team, a great chance, and even if they don’t qualify here, I have no fear because the remaining qualifying tournament is this March in Rotterdam, and they are too quality not to qualify.”

Three Croatian clubs are competing in the Champions League this season, while Croatian clubs always lead the Regional League. How does Elvis see the current state of Croatian water polo?

“Croatia surely has the best teams in the Regional League. The club structure is still one of the strongest. The only stronger league is probably the Hungarian league, which brings over a lot of international players. The structure and competition in Croatia is quite good, but the problem with European clubs is that they play too many games. In my opinion, Croatia has slowed down a bit in the development of the players, which I believe could be better. Some of Croatia’s junior and youth results in the European and World Champs are outside the top eight, which means that something is wrong, and something needs to change.” 

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