Dušan Mandić: Last year was spectacular, team successes are the most important

In a New Year's interview for "Tanjug," officially the best player in the world in 2024 Dušan Mandić said that he had a spectacular year behind him, in which he won the European champion title with Ferencváros team and his third Olympic gold with the Serbian national team.

He emphasized that individual awards are nice, that they confirm hard work and effort, but that as an athlete, the team successes, trophies, and gold medals are what fulfill him the most.

– Team play and the fighting spirit we showed in very difficult moments, when everyone wrote us off. I felt like we were walking on a tightrope, where if we fall, if we slip, someone will say that we are the worst generation that did not win a medal in one Olympic cycle. And we really showed the opposite, achieved a result that still seems incredible to me today. When I think about what we went through and how we endured. In the end, we showed everyone who we are and what we are, and many doubted – highlighted Mandić, who as a "prelude to Paris" won the double crown in Hungary with Ferencváros, then the European champion title.

During the Olympic tournament in Paris, he traditionally did not give interviews, which was a sign to reporters from Paris that a new gold medal was "looming."

– Everything aside from training, aside from matches, I perceive as a draining of energy. I focused maximally on the tournament, on everything I considered important at that moment. You understand, I replied to everyone, said there will be opportunities. Simply, we couldn't read those headlines after the group stage. The public was harsh, and everyone was harsh after the group and wrote us off even before the competition, especially in the group stage. We turned to ourselves, within us and only that way could we achieve this result.

The Olympic Games and the past season came after a "bad moment" in New Belgrade, where as one of the best in the world, he was expelled from the team.

– I cut it off, I prepared, I prepared very well, professionally. I experienced all sorts of things, and that made me stronger. I dealt with all the injustice, I emerged stronger from it. For myself and my family, I fought the most, and that was the source of my strength – stated Mandić, who besides three gold medals also has a bronze from London, so everyone believes that in Los Angeles in 2028, he will "go after" his fifth Olympic medal.