The Serbia men's national water polo team represents Serbia in international men's water polo. It is considered to be one of the most successful men's water polo teams in the world, winning medals in all Olympic tournaments since 2000, including record three consecutive gold medals, and winning multiple European and World Championships.
Serbia has inherited the continuity of results and medals from all former state unions (Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro).
Including the results of the former Yugoslav team, Serbia has won three consecutive gold medals in the Olympic water polo tournament (from 2016 to 2024), five World Championships, eight European Championships, three World Cups, record 14 FINA World Leagues, four gold medals at Mediterranean Games, four gold medals at Summer Universiades and a gold medal at the first and so far only water polo tournament at the European Games. They won nine straight major competitions: the 2014 World League, 2014 Europeans, 2014 World Cup, 2015 World League, 2015 World Championships, 2016 Europeans, 2016 World League, 2016 Olympics, and 2017 World League. Their golden streak came to an end at the 2017 Worlds when Croatia beat them in the semis, and they had to settle for the bronze medal.
In 2016, Serbia became the first national water polo team to simultaneously hold titles in all five existing major championships—European Championship, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Olympic Games. The team holds the record for the most consecutive World League titles, winning five consecutive titles from 2013 to 2017. They are Serbia's most successful national sports team, having won more titles than all other Serbian national teams combined.
Competitive record Medals Includes matches of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia.
Updated after the 2026 Mediterranean Games Competition TotalOlympic Games 6 5 3 14World Championship 5 2 5 12European Championship 9 9 5 23World Cup 5 2 3 10World League 12 1 1 14Europa Cup 0 0 0 0Mediterranean Games 4 0 2 6Summer Universiade 4 1 2 7 Total 45 20 21 86
Olympic Games
YearPosition1936 to 1988part of SFR Yugoslavia as 1992 Barcelona suspended 1996 Atlanta 8th 2000 Sydney as 2004 Athens as 2008 Beijing 2012 London 2016 Rio de Janeiro 2020 Tokyo 2024 Paris 2028 Los Angeles future events 2032 Brisbane
World Championship YearPosition1973 to 1991part of SFR Yugoslavia as 1994 Rome suspended 1998 Perth 2001 Fukuoka as 2003 Barcelona 2005 Montreal as 2007 Melbourne 4th 2009 Rome 2011 Shanghai 2013 Barcelona 7th 2015 Kazan 2017 Budapest 2019 Gwangju 5th 2022 Budapest 5th 2023 Fukuoka 4th 2024 Doha 6th 2025 Singapore 4th 2027 Budapest future events 2029 Beijing
European Championship YearPosition1950 to 1991part of SFR Yugoslavia as 1993 Sheffield suspended 1995 Vienna did not participate 1997 Seville 1999 Florence 7th 2001 Budapest as 2003 Kranj as 2006 Belgrade 2008 Malaga 2010 Zagreb 2012 Eindhoven 2014 Budapest 2016 Belgrade 2018 Barcelona 2020 Budapest 5th 2022 Split 9th 2024 Dubrovnik and Zagreb 7th 2026 Belgrade
World Cup YearPosition1979 to 1991 part of SFR Yugoslavia as 1993 Athens suspended 1995 Atlanta did not participate 1997 Athens 7th 1999 Sydney 5th 2002 Belgrade as 2006 Budapest as 2010 Oradea 2014 Almaty 2018 Berlin 2023 Los Angeles 7th 2025 Bucharest did not qualify 2026 Sydney did not qualify
World League YearPosition as 2002 Patras did not participate as 2003 New York 4th 2004 Long Beach 2005 Belgrade 2006 Athens as 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 2022 Strasbourg 5th
Europa Cup YearPosition 2018 Rijeka 4th 2019 Zagreb 6th
Mediterranean Games YearPosition1959 to 1991part of SFR Yugoslavia as 1993 Languedoc-Roussillon suspended 1997 Bari 2001 Tunis 4th as 2005 Almeria as 2009 Pescara 2013 Tunis 6th 2018 Tarragona 2022 Oran 2026 Taranto 2030 Pristina future event
Team Current squad Roster for the 2026 European Championships.
Head coach: Uroš Stevanović
1 Radoslav Filipović 2 Dušan Mandić 3 Strahinja Rašović 4 Sava Ranđelović 5 Miloš Ćuk 6 Đorđe Lazić 7 Radomir Drašović 8 Nikola Jakšić 9 Nemanja Vico 10 Nikola Dedović 11 Petar Jakšić 12 Viktor Rašović 13 Milan Glušac 14 Vasilije Martinović 15 Nikola Lukić
Coaches
1992–1999 Nikola Stamenić 1999–2004 Nenad Manojlović 2004–2006 Petar Porobić 2006–2012 Dejan Udovičić 2012–2022 Dejan Savić 2022–2026 Uroš Stevanović 2026– present Vladimir Vujasinović
Most appearances and goals
Professional friendly and competitive matches only where Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro and now Serbia were represented.
NameYearsMatchesGoals1 Dejan Savić1994–20082 Aleksandar Šapić1997–20083 Filip Filipović2003–20214 Živko Gocić2003–20165 Slobodan Nikić2003–20166 Igor Milanović1984–19967 Aleksandar Ćirić1997–20088 Vladimir Vujasinović1990–20089 Duško Pijetlović2005–202110 Andrija Prlainović2005–2021 Statistics accurate as of matches played 6 August 2021
Attendance At the final of the European Championship held in Belgrade in 2016, a record attendance was set at a water polo match. The final between Serbia and Montenegro was watched by 18,473 fans.
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 hundred incubator.
See also Serbia men's Olympic water polo team records and statistics Yugoslavia men's national water polo team Serbia and Montenegro men's national water polo team List of Olympic champions in men's water polo List of men's Olympic water polo tournament records and statistics List of world champions in men's water polo
References
External links
Serbian Federation website