Dejan Stanojevic: “We are to start in the qualifiers to get to the European Championship”

“We have a problem in that we can travel visa-free only to Serbia and Montenegro”

— Dejan, you recently came to work with the national team. How is the adaptation process going?

— Of course, when I came to work, time was needed to get acquainted with the players, the level of their mastery, their characters. What next? First, one must not think that we were absent from the international arena, but one also should not immediately set maximum goals. One must achieve them step by step, dreaming of achieving them.

Besides everything, we have a problem in that we can travel only to Serbia and Montenegro — two countries where visas are not needed, and there are strong national teams and strong clubs there with which one can hold sparring matches. Other countries with strong opponents — Hungary, Italy, Spain — require visas. Proceeding from this we will hold the next training camp with sparring matches in Montenegro, in January — in Serbia. This will allow our players to understand what level of play in terms of technique, tactics and physics they need to reach in order to rise to the step where the Serbs, three-time Olympic champions, and the competitive Montenegrins are.

— You had silver this summer at the first World Championship in beach water polo. How do you assess the level of the tournament and what was especially memorable in these starts?

— Such a tournament is not the first in history, but it became the first official one held under the aegis of the International Swimming Federation. To understand the level of the participants — we started with a game against America, and in their roster there were several people who two years ago became medalists of the Olympics in Paris. Very strong teams were sent by the representatives of the former Yugoslavia — Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro.

Most important for us was the return of Russia to international starts, accompanied by the fact that we took silver. Besides the result, I will note that we showed a good level of water polo. The main difference between classical water polo and beach is that “beach” requires far more energy expended on the game both in defense and in attack; physics prevails over tactics, and individual play one-on-one decides very much.

In classical water polo there is also a lot of individual play, but there one can hide shortcomings in individual mastery at the expense of tactical constructions. In beach water polo individual play prevails, and now we need to prepare players for it, starting with children's teams at the age of up to 12, 14, 16. The ability to use the legs correctly and set blocks — this is important, since, in my opinion, this sport will very quickly become Olympic. As beach volleyball earlier became, then basketball in the 3-on-3 format.

“Many teams — many young people, without whom it is impossible to achieve progress”

— In December you are to hold a training camp in Montenegro. Now there are six teams in the Russian championship, the rest are their duplicates. In Montenegro there were even fewer — four, but then “Buducnost” was added, and from the current season “Mladost” and “Sutjeska.” And this for 600 thousand people of population.

— I will say about Montenegro that there this is the number one sport. Even football and handball follow. There is the Mediterranean Sea, beaches nearby, natural reservoirs. And every athletic boy tries his strength in water polo after he learns to swim. A similar situation in Croatia and Serbia, where the country is bigger, and many people play. There are three leagues alone in our championship. Many teams — many young people, without whom it is impossible to achieve progress. I say this as a person who worked for 12 years in the system of the Serbian national team. We had a decline after the Olympics in Beijing, when Savic, Sapic, Vujasinovic immediately stopped playing, but they were immediately replaced by a new generation of talents, and we won Olympic gold three times. It is not even about the medals — our sport is very healthy, masculine.

— The question is how now to attract new participants to water polo and how to create teams? This is one of the three sports that got into the Olympics before all: football, rugby and water polo. In the times of the USSR there were more teams than in present-day Russia.

— And look how many teams are located in one Belgrade. Serbia, Hungary, where the capital Budapest also has a large number of teams, are among the leaders of world water polo. In Belgrade live 2 million people, and the city is represented by nine teams of the level of the highest and first leagues of the Serbian championship.

“One must increase the number of teams, thereby creating a good foundation for progress”

— “Beograd," “Novi grad," “Stari grad” — you do not have enough original names for everyone.

— Novi Sad, Sabac, Obrenovac, Pancevo — two teams each. And here in Moscow — one club “Vostok," which has two teams, as in St. Petersburg, Kazan and Astrakhan. In Budapest it is altogether cosmos. This is a long process, but one must increase the number of teams, thereby creating a good foundation for progress. One must create water polo academies and demonstrate by means of those engaged there what a beautiful and healthy sport we have, and not wait for someone to come to train on their own.

Considering that in Russia there is football, hockey, basketball and volleyball, which are ready to take promising children for themselves, one must compete with them, as they do in the countries of the former Yugoslavia and Hungary. How do they achieve high popularity? For example, in the Serbian school pupils from 7 to 10 years old have one class in the pool. One can come, do some training, watch a water polo training — that is how popularity is born. “Partizan” has about 500 participants, “Vojvodina” — 350; the best of them get into the team. Only thus is the final result achieved. First quantity is gathered, it creates quality.

“Partizan also went through a difficult period, but now has revived”

— Recently there were problems at “Partizan," where the Kazan player Zamir Mirziev played. Now they announced the withdrawal of “Crvena Zvezda” from the championship. What is happening with the most popular and oldest teams of Serbia?

— Everything rests on finances; in the end many player contracts ended up with lawyers. But look, “Partizan” also went through a difficult period, and now has revived, again contends for medals in the domestic championship and plays in the European cups.

— Here, as it seems to me, there is a difference. “Partizan” always had duplicate teams, such as “Student," then “Banjica” and “Kosutnjak.” When the leaders left the main team, it quickly replaced them with young people from the duplicate teams. But “Crvena Zvezda” has no such duplicate.

— Yes, another advantage of “Partizan” was the presence of its own pool as a base for development, while “Crvena Zvezda” had no such base. But I hope that the team will revive, as happened when the team “Radnicki” in Kragujevac died and resurrected.

— Having already named Mirziev, who plays at “Valis” together with Nekredin, as well as Igor Chirkov in Georgia with Alekseev, I want to ask: do you track the play of Russians performing abroad?

— I will start with the fact that it is supposed: Alekseev will take the citizenship of Georgia, in which he plays. As Ivan Gusarov wants to play for the Romanian national team, playing now for the local “Oradea.” Considering that in March 2027 we are to start in the qualification tournament to get into the final part of the 2028 European Championship, I assume that we need three or four experienced people in the roster, next to whom the young will grow. Therefore we now work in conjunction with the coaching staffs of the youth and junior national teams in order to build both the vertical and the horizontal in our common work. Therefore we communicate and watch video recordings from the training of these teams. I personally was at all the international competitions of our youth and junior teams this year; moreover, I visited practically all the most important children's and youth competitions in Russia.

“It is necessary to play each new match so as to worthily represent one's country”

— The Dutch spoke out against the participation of our athletes. Now, upon the return to the international arena, did you have difficulties?

— In 2027 a qualifying tournament must take place to get into the number of participants of the Olympics. Maybe our qualification will be appointed to a country that will not give visas to Russian athletes. Can this happen? It can! This is politics; here I can say nothing.

— Before the silver world championship in beach water polo you had a qualifying tournament of the World Cup. You lost by one goal to the French, but the next day you were losing to the Romanians during the game 3:13 — and that was beyond the pale.

— It is hard to say unambiguously. Apparently, after the loss to France and the loss of chances to get into the stage of the World Cup, we turned out to be psychologically unprepared. Yes, the Romanians, who also lost their chances, were beating us, and we spoke about this at the general meeting. In sport it is necessary each new day, each new match to play so as to worthily represent one's country, and this too must be learned, like tactics and technique.

I will note that it is hard to lay out a plan of preparation for competitions, because you do not know: will visas be issued to you or not? The same Holland, as well as France, refused us the issuance of visas when we wanted to take part in international tournaments held in these countries.