Partizan relies on young forces; Stefan Ćirić: The beginning of a four-year project

One of the most trophy-winning water polo clubs in the world, Partizan from Belgrade, recently set up a water polo field on Ada Ciganlija, in cooperation with the management of this Belgrade excursion site and the "Šark" cafe, which will be used by the younger categories and the black water polo school from next year. white ones, and there will be events for the promotion of water polo.

Today, a kind of "black and white day" was organized on the new field. Partizan presented all its teams for the next season, from the youngest to the seniors.

Several hundred young water polo players from Partizan's younger categories paraded around the pool, and everything ended with the exit of the first teams.

This season, the first team is practically a junior team. The three oldest players were born in 2004, Veljko Bodiroga, Mihajlo Janošević and Nikola Vuk Radulović, while the youngest were born in 2008.

There are several players in the team who have trophies behind them on the international stage. Seven of Partizan's first team players won a silver medal this summer at the World Championship for under-18 players in Buenos Aires, and six of them recently participated in the European Championship for 19-year-olds.

And last season, the black and whites had a very young squad, and the rejuvenation continued. There were a lot of departures from Banjica this summer. Olympic champion and last season's captain, Petar Jakšić, joined Radnički. Luka Gladović, who made his debut for the senior national team this winter, went to New Belgrade, and recently, at the end of the transfer window, Strahinja Krstić, MVP of the World Championship for 18-year-olds, joined him.

Reinforcements were not brought in, the leadership of the black and whites decided to rely on their young forces while stabilizing the club.

The team will be led from the bench by a member of the coaching staff of the senior national team, Stefan Ćirić, who after three years returned to the club this summer and took over the first team again.

“The team is very young. The club, in accordance with the budget and the big "reset", did not want to enter into plans and set goals that they might not fulfill. We are starting a new cycle with a young team and long-term goals. The project is to make a stable team from the players we now have at our disposal in the next four years, with gradual, supplementary selection, in accordance with the conditions and results. , Ciric said in an interview for the UVTS website.

Hint of good working conditions

The conditions at the Banjica swimming pool have been a sore spot for Partizan for years. Problems with heating, breakdowns in the swimming pool culminated last season. Since last summer, until the beginning of April, the indoor pool was not in operation.

"According to the information we have now, the problems with the swimming pool that Partizan has faced for years will not occur next season. It is a positive sign that already during September, when it was very cold in Belgrade, we had heating in Banjica. I don't remember when it happened. I hope that everything will be fine, primarily because of our younger categories, because there will always be space and a pool for training for the first team, with the younger categories it is more difficult.

The parade of male and female water polo players of all categories lasted quite a long time today at Ada Ciganlija, which shows that the mass is coming back, Partizan's school is getting back on track.

"An increasing number of children are enrolled in water polo school, especially after the success of the national team at the Olympic Games. Since the beginning of the season, about 70 children have enrolled in the VK Partizan swimming school, I hope and expect that during the whole season they will all have good working conditions."

When it comes to the first team, preparations started a month ago. Partizan trained only at Banjica. Ćirić says that black and white had invitations to participate in friendly tournaments organized by Novi Beograd, Bečej, Romanian Oradea, but that he thanked for the invitation. The team was completed only recently, because the junior national team members were absent, so sparring was abandoned.

The Premier League and Top 8 in Serbia are on target, but results are not a priority

Partizan starts the season on October 11, with a match against Proleter, in the A1 Regional League. Last season, black and white were relegated from the Premier League.

-The main result goal is certainly the return to the Premier Regional League. Although, my opinion is that the league will have a hard time surviving due to the many compromises, failures in the organization and the ambiguities surrounding the competition system in the A1 league that last until the start of the season.

According to the latest information, the clubs in the A1 league will be divided into two groups. All Serbian clubs (Partizan, Zemun, Nais, NBG Vukovi, Stari grad, Proleter) will play in Group B, together with Montenegrin clubs Katara and Podgorica Budućnošća, which formed a senior team this season. According to the original agreement, only Serbian clubs were supposed to be in the group.

In the second part of the season, the clubs from Group B will cross paths with the teams from Group A, in which, along with the Croatian clubs, the Slovenian Branik also participates.

"We will see how things will develop, but the goal is to place in the Premier League and to be among the best three Serbian teams in the A1 League, because in that case, together with the five Serbian clubs in the Premier League, we will be among the eight best in the Super League of Serbia. We are still waiting for definitive information about the competition system, but probably after the Regional League, eight clubs will immediately participate in the playoffs.

We hope to surprise one of the favorites. However, the result is not our priority this season. Considering the youth of the team, we will use this season for the progress of the players, their individual qualities, as well as the order of the whole team, tactical improvement, Ćirić concluded.