Vladimir Vujasinović ( sr-cyrl, Владимир Вујасиновић; ; born 14 August 1973) is a Serbian professional

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

head coach and former player. He currently serves as head coach of VK Novi Beograd. During his playing career, he won two Olympic bronze medals ( FR Yugoslavia team at 2000 Olympics and Serbia team at 2008 Olympics), an Olympic silver medal ( Serbia and Montenegro team at 2004 Olympics), and numerous other titles. He has been named best water polo player in the world several times. In 2003 he was pronounced the best athlete of Serbia and Montenegro, and in 2005 the

Olympic Committee of Serbia The Olympic Committee of Serbia (, sr-Cyrl, Олимпијски комитет Србије) is the National Olympic Committee representing Serbia. It organizes the country's participation at the Olympic Games and other multisport events. The ...

and Montenegro declared him to be the best sportsman. Vujasinović has played 341 matches for his country and scored 391 times. In 2011, his then club VK Partizan won the

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

and National Cup of Serbia, LEN Euroleague (his fourth overall),

LEN Super Cup The European Aquatics Super Cup is an annual water polo match organized by European Aquatics and contested by the reigning champions of the two most important European club competitions, the European Aquatics Champions League and the European A ...

(his third overall), Eurointer League and Tom Hoad Cup.

Early life

Vujasinović was born on 14 August 1973 in

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

(modern

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

), to ethnic Serb parents hailing from Ivoševci village near

Knin Knin () is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka (Croatia), Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split, Croatia, Split. ...

. He grew up in

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

Career

As player

Vujasinović debuted for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

Kotor Kotor (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian language, Italian: ), is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has ...

scoring his first goal against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in an 18–3 win. He was 17 years, three months and 22 days old. From 1995. he was a permanent member of the national team, and a captain since 2003. During this period, Vladimir only missed the 1999 European championship after a doping scandal after the Italian Cup semi-final. In numerous surveys, he was elected as the world's best water polo player on the grounds that he can play equally well in all positions for the team. Forerunner of all-round player, he was a member of all possible ideal setups. He retired from the national team in 2008. Vujasinović is considered to be one of the best players in the history of world water polo. He played for Croatian Primorje, Serbian VK Crvena zvezda, Spanish

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Italian A.S. Roma Pallanuoto, Serbian VK Partizan, Italian Pro Recco, Brazilian Fluminense. In summer 2007 he played with Maltese side Neptunes WPSC and helped them retain the Maltese First Division. He was named ''Most Valuable Player'' at the 2001 European Championship in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. Vujasinović won European Champions League several times with Italian Pro Recco (year 2007 and 2008) and Serbian VK Partizan. He rejoined Partizan Belgrade for the 2008/9 season. He won the Malta Waterpolo Summer League title with Neptunes Emirates (St. Julians, Malta) in August 2010.

As coach

Vladimir Vujasinović named as assistant coach of Serbian national team in 2012. With

, he won 2016 Olympic Games, 2015 World Championship, two European Championships:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and four World League:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. In 1 year and less than 2 months the Serbian National team had won the four biggest titles in Waterpolo in a row, a feat nobody before him did.

Club

As player

Neptunes WPSC

Efforts to strengthen the team and try to retain the championship in 2007 were made immediately after the 2006 season ended. Serbian idol Vlado Vujasinović was snapped up from top Italian side Pro Recco and Sergio Afric’s immediate reaction to the club president was "Abbiamo appena vinto il prossimo campionato!" And how true that was. Vlado turned out to be the toast of the game’s connoisseurs as he managed to bring the best out of his colleagues with his superb marshalling at the back, closing all gaps and his play-making was the platform of Neptunes offensive stints. The final game that wrapped up the championship for Neptunes will go down in the club’s history as the biggest win they ever registered over Sliema – 12–4.

Partizan Raiffeizen

2011–12 season On 22 October 2011. Vujasinović scored two goals in the first round of the Euroleague Group, in an 8–9 loss to Szeged Beton VE. On 9 November Vujasinović scored a goal in the second round of the Euroleague Group in the 10–10 tie against TEVA-Vasas-UNIQA. On 26 November Vujasinović scored a goal in a 9–6 Euroleague third round win over ZF Eger in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. On 30 December Vujasinović won with Partizan the ninth " Tom Hoad Cup" in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, defeating in the final the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

team, Fremantle Mariners 11–9. He led his rejuvenated team to the victory with no

Serbia men's national water polo team 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 it has entered, i ...

representatives as a captain. On 15 February 2012. Vujasinović scored his first goal of the Serbian National Championship season, in the second round of the "A League", in an 8–6 win against Crvena zvezda VET. On 17 February Vujasinović scored in the third round of the "A League", in an easy 14–2 win against ŽAK. On 26 February Vujasinović scored his last two goals in the final round of the Euroleague Group, in which his team lost by 9–8 to Szeged Beton VE and dropped out of the competition. On 1 March he scored two goals against VK Vojvodina in a 10–9 win in the "A League" fourth round. Vujasinović has additionally had summer league club stints in Malta and Brazil with Neptunes WPSC and Fluminense, respectively.

As coach

Vujasinović led VK Partizan from 2013. He won two Serbian league matches and was twice in the semifinal in

LEN Champions League The European Aquatics Champions League is the top-tier European professional water polo club competition with teams from up to 18 countries. It is organized by the Ligue Européenne de Natation. The competition started in 1963 as European Cup. A ...

. He led the youngest team in

. In 2016, Vujasinović signed a three-year contract with Italian Pro Recco, but stayed there for two seasons, until June 2018. On July 1, 2019, he was named a new head coach of VK Novi Beograd.

Honours

Club

Crvena zvezda * National Championship of Yugoslavia (2) : 1991–92, 1992–93 CN Barcelona * División de Honor de Waterpolo (3) : 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

(2) : 1994–95, 1995–96 * LEN Cup (1) : 1994–95 AS Roma Pallanuoto * Serie A1 (1) : 1998–99 Pro Recco * Serie A1 (4) : 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

(3) : 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 * Trofeo del Giocatore (1) : 2003 * LEN Euroleague (3) : 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08 * LEN Supercup (2) : 2003–04, 2007–08 Neptunes WPSC * National Championship of Malta (1) : 2007 PA Fluminense * National Championship of Brazil (1) : 2009 Partizan * National Championship of Serbia (4) : 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12 * National Cup of Serbia (4) : 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12 * LEN Euroleague (1) : 2010–11 * LEN Supercup (1) : 2011–12 * LEN Cup (1) : 1997–98 * Eurointer League (2) : 2009–10, 2010–11 * Tom Hoad Cup (1) : 2011

Individual

* European Championship

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

(1): 2001 Budapest * FINA Athlete of the Year in men's water polo (1): 2001 * Golden Badge (1): 2003 * Best Sportsman by OCS (1): 2005

References

Waterpolo Serbia

Pro Recco

External links

Early life

Career

As player

As coach

Club

As player

Neptunes WPSC

Partizan Raiffeizen

As coach

Honours

Club

Individual

See also

References

External links