Vaterpolo klub Partizan () is a professional water polo club based in Belgrade, Serbia. It is part of the JSD Partizan sport society. As of 2025–26 season, the club competes in the Serbian Super League and VRL Premier League.
Partizan's home terrain is the pool which is part of the Sportski centar Voždovac on Banjica complex. The club is supported by Grobari, fans of all sport clubs competing under the name of Partizan Belgrade.
With seven European champion titles (the last in 2011 against Pro Recco), VK Partizan is the second most successful European team in water polo history along with Mladost, and behind Pro Recco with ten titles.
History
The club was founded in 1946 and from 1952 is a member of the First League. VK Partizan players had a big influence in Yugoslav and Serbian national water polo teams. They helped Serbia and Yugoslavia win many medals at the Olympics, European and World championships.
Creation of a championship team VK Partizan began to write its rich history at the beginning of the sixties. The key moment for the beginning of Partizan's dominance in water polo sport was the arrival of Vlaho Orlić, probably the best water polo coach of all time. This event took place in 1958, when Vlaho came from VK Jug to Belgrade, to be both a coach and a player for VK Partizan.
A powerful team began to slowly emerge. Already in 1960, Mirko Sandić (top center), Nenad Manić, Dragan Čolović and Branko Živković were in Partizan. After two years spent in the PVK Jadran from Herceg Novi, the future first goalkeeper of the world, Milan Gale Muškatirović, returns to Belgrade. Boris Čukvas and Dragoslav Šiljak, representatives of the national team, then arrive in Partizan from Herceg Novi. Feliče Tedeski comes from Korčula, and Zoran Janković, a future national team player, from HAVK Mladost. It took several seasons to create a powerful team from this group of individuals, which will rule European water polo for the next decades.
In 1964, Partizan became the champion of Yugoslavia, for the first time in its history. One piece was missing in the mosaic. That piece was Đorđe Perišić. Đorđe was a famous swimmer at the time, a member of the Partizan swimming club and a member of the national team. After winning the championship title of VK Partizan, Đorđe decides to change his sport and joins water polo training. A fateful decision, because Đorđe later became a water polo player with six European championship titles. Perhaps the finger of fate, perhaps a logical sequence of events, then comes the creation of a European club competition - the first European Cup.
First European title and dominance in the 1960s The final of the first European Cup in 1964 was held in Zagreb. In the decisive game for the title of European champion, Partizan defeated the representative of the Soviet Union - WPC Dynamo Moscow, with a score of 4-3. The first scorer of the tournament was Partizan center Mirko Sandić. Ozren Bonačić, the former captain of HAVK Mladost, the best water polo player in Yugoslavia at the time, played for Partizan in the first tournament of the European Cup as a reinforcement. Bonačić was declared the best player of the tournament. The following year, 1965, the final tournament of the European Cup was played in Italy. Partizan failed to defend the title of European champion, it was defeated in the final match by the host Pro Recco, with a score of 1-0.
The very next year, in 1966, Partizan managed to return the trophy of the European champion to its display case. Instead of the final tournament, an elimination system was played. Partizan knocked out the reigning champion Pro Recco in the semi-finals. As hosts, Pro Recco won the first game with a score of 4-1. Back then, few believed that Partizan could compensate for this high advantage of the Italians. However, in the second game in Yugoslavia, Partizan won 5-1 and qualified for the final. Carried by the frenetic support of the audience, Partizan's players played as if in a trance, many of them played the game of their lives that evening, and the hero, according to everyone, was the legendary goalkeeper Gale Muškatirović, who was practically invincible. In that match, Partizan's goalkeeper made an incredible 17 successful saves with only one conceded goal. In the final, Partizan beat SG Dynamo Magdeburg 5-3, so the 4-3 defeat in Germany was enough for Partizan to become the European champion. In 1967, Partizan continued its dominance in European water polo. The third title of the champion of Europe was won, with a victory over Pro Recco, with a score of 4-3. The final was played on a neutral ground in Geneva.
By the end of the 1960s, Partizan had won five Yugoslav championship titles, competing primarily with HAVK Mladost of Zagreb and PVK Jadran of Herceg Novi, Following the retirements of Boris Čukvas and Gale Muškatirović, the club added several players who became prominent during 1970s, including Siniša Belamarić from VK Šibenik, Duško Antunović from Korčula, Uroš Maravić from VK Jadran Split and Dejan Dabović from PVK Jadran.
The merry seventies In talk about the seventies, the term "merry seventies" is often used. General social progress was evident, Yugoslavia was developing rapidly, and care was taken to ensure the even development of all six Yugoslav republics. As much as Belgrade was the center of development, Zagreb, Split, Ljubljana, Sarajevo and other cities were also taken into account. In this context, we can also observe sports events. The champions of the country changed from year to year, so for example in basketball, in ten years we have as many as seven different teams that were champions. In addition to Partizan, basketball titles were also won by Olimpija from Ljubljana, Zadar, Jugoplastika from Split, Radnički from Crveni Krst, Bosna from Sarajevo, and Red Star. It is similar in football, there was no pronounced dominance of one team, but the titles were won by Partizan (in 1976), Hajduk from Split, Željezničar from Sarajevo and Red Star.
The period of mid to late twentieth century saw the formation of an impressive era for VK Partizan in the field of both domestic and international water polo. The team bagged their sixth Yugoslav national league title in 1969/70 season, thus ending the consecutive reign of Zagreb HAVK Mladost, who were the reigning European champions. The list of players that played in KK Partizan during this era consisted of experienced players such as Zoran Janković, Mirko Sandić and Đorđe Perišić along with new talent like Belamarić, Maravić and Antunović.
VK Partizan won its fourth European Cup in 1971. The tournament took place at Tašmajdan Sports Center, Belgrade and comprised of two teams from Yugoslavia; one was the reigning European champions Mladost and the other one was the national champions Partizan. In this tournament, Partizan defeated WPC Dynamo Moscow 4-3 and Stockholms KK 7-2. After drawing with Mladost in the finals by a score line of 4-4, Partizan lifted the cup due to better goal difference.
The 1971 competition would be the last time Janković and Feliče Tedeski would appear in the European Cup. After their retirement, Sandić and Perišić were left as the only playing members of the club who had won the title back then. New players such as Ratko Rudić from the club VK Jadran Split, along with Zoran Bratuša, Predrag Vraneš, Nikola Stamenić, Nenad Manojlović, Predrag Manojlović, and Zoran Avramović joined the team.
Partizan became the champion of Yugoslavia eight times in a row, starting from 1972 and ending in 1979. Mladost, Jadran Split and PVK Jadran, Korčula, POŠK, VK Jug, VK Primorje, Kotor fought for second place. The first was practically reserved for the champions from Banjica. In these eight years, the Yugoslav Cup was won six times. In 1972, this competition was not even played, and the only time when Partizan did not win this trophy was in 1977, when they lost the final to Korčula. So, in eight years: championship 8/8, cup 6/7. During this period, Partizan is at the top of European water polo. In 1972, Partizan participated in the European Cup as the official champion of Europe. Without Zoran Janković, Partizan was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the later finalist Pro Recco. In 1973, we reached the European Cup final and lost 5-4 to the Hungarian OSC Budapest. In the following year, 1974, Partizan was yet again eliminated by OSC Budapest, this time in the semi-finals. And then, the 1974/75 and 1975/76 seasons. During these two years, Partizan wins all the games he plays, be they in the European Cup, the domestic championship or the Yugoslavian cup. So, for two years, all the games he played, Partizan won! European Cup final tournament for 1974/75. was played at Banjica in December 1974. In the final, Partizan overcame OSC Budapest with a score of 6-2 and won its fifth European title. After this tournament, Mirko Sandić says goodbye to playing water polo. What a career, 17 seasons in Partizan, 18 trophies won, 5 European championship titles.
The following year, in 1976, Partizan defended the title of European champion at the final tournament in the Netherlands. Behind the black and whites are the Hungarian Vasas SC, CN Posillipo and the Dutch HZC De Robben. Then Đorđe Perišić also said goodbye to active playing, after 13 seasons and 21 trophies, as a six-time European club champion. In 1977 and 1979, Partizan lost two semi-finals and finished fourth and third respectively in Europe. This generation sings its swan song in 1979/1980, when the seventh title of the European champion slipped away, due to the defeat in the final against Vasas SC 9-7. Let's summarize the "merry seventies". Partizan is in this period. in addition to nine national titles (eight in a row), he was European champion three times, played in the final two more times and was stopped in the semi-finals of the European Cup three more times. In addition to the already mentioned "old masters" - Janković, Sandić and Perišić, this period was marked by Antunović, Maravić, Belamarić, Rudić, Stamenić, brothers Manojlović, Bratuša, Vraneš, Marković, Avramović.
Last two decades of the 20th century The last decade before the breakup of Yugoslavia brought a change on the water polo map, both domestic and Euro-water polo. Partizan was no longer the dominant team in Yugoslavia, but remained in the top, and in Europe, the black and white water polo players won third place in the European Cup three times and once reached the final of the same competition. In this period, Partizan won "only" 3 national championship titles and 4 cups. Mladost and Jug were more successful, albeit not much and not on the scale of Partizan in the 60s and 70s. Vlaho Orlić again took over the position of coach-advisor, and former Partizan players began to perform the work of the first coach: Mirko Sandić, Siniša Belamarić, Duško Antunović, Nikola Stamenić and Ratko Rudić. The latter won the Mediterranean Cup with Partizan in 1989, and it was the first trophy in that competition that was placed in the club's showcases.
Until the beginning of the 80s, Rudić, Belamarić, Stamenić, Predrag Manojlović were still playing for Partizan. In the meantime, new "Partizan sharks" are growing up in Banjica: Milorad Krivokapić and Aleksandar Šoštar, who were among the top goalkeepers in the world, Igor Milanović - probably the best water polo player in the world of all time, Igor Gočanin, Goran Rađenović, Zoran Petrović, and Dragan Andrić. In the second half of the eighties, the brothers Dejan and Darko Udovičić, as well as the center Dušan Popović, started playing for Partizan.