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Following the suspension of head coach Goran Sablic, Jovan Radojevic will lead the men’s national team ad interim during the upcoming European Championship Qualification that will take place from 23rd to 25th of June in Kranj (Slovenia).
Radojevic, who is currently the head coach of Schaffhausen, nominated 16 players, mainly from the four teams at the top of the Swiss League, for the last joint training on the weekend of 17-18th of June in Sursee:
- SC Kreuzlingen: Joel Herzog, Flurin Rickenbach, Gian Rickenbach, Robin Pleyer, Simon Geiser, Noah Dudler
- SC Horgen: Domonkos Szer, Philipp Herzog, Oskar Kieloch, Pietro Gazzini (goalkeeper)
- SC Schaffhausen: Yannick Schmuki (goalkeeper), Zvonimir Zlomislic, Nikola Milovanovic, Marko Milovanovic
- Carouge Natation: Jonathan Melet, Damien Thebault
Assistant coach Sebastien Viriot and team manager Adrian Seemüller complete the coaching staff.
The last cut will be done prior to the qualification tournament as only 14 players will travel to Kranj.
wball.ch had the chance to speak to Jovan Radojevic.
Everything is possible on a good day and if we collectively call our best performance.
wball.ch: tell us about your water polo journey so far and how it ultimately led you to become the head coach of SC Schaffhausen.
Jovan Radojevic: I started training water polo around 1992 in my hometown, Nis (Serbia). From there, I eventually began to play in the first team of Nis and then moved to other clubs in the first Serbian league, like Becej and Crvena Zvezda. After a short period playing in Kuwait, I moved to the German Bundesliga with Esslingen in 2008 and then Cannstatt in 2010. In Cannstatt, I started coaching youth players, and in 2016, I took over the first team after my retirement as a player.
A few years later, I moved to the south of Germany following a new career opportunity unrelated to water polo. I wasn’t considering continuing a career in water polo, but ultimately joined SC Schaffhausen and became the head coach there in January 2018.
I was given the freedom to call some players that weren’t on the national team’s radar.
wball.ch: have you had the chance to meet and work with the team, and how will you prepare for the tournament?
Jovan Radojevic: first of all, it’s an honor and a great responsibility to lead the men’s national team, even if it’s just ad interim and until the end of the qualification. I met with the team during a joint camp in May, and I was also given the freedom to call some players that weren’t on the national team’s radar.
We have a very compact team, where everybody knows their role and position.
wball.ch: tell us more about the team and its key players (goalkeepers, centers, center-backs, lefties, drivers).
Jovan Radojevic: when I was appointed in my interim role, I contacted all the most experienced Swiss players and was able to motivate Robin Pleyer and Simon Geiser to come back to the national team for this qualification round.
Robin Pleyer is currently in great condition and will also be the team captain. Nikola Milovanovic and Gian Rickenbach will be the center forwards.
We have a very compact team, where everybody knows their role and position.
wball.ch: you will face Romania, Slovenia, and Finland. Only the two best-placed teams qualify for the European Championship in Israel in 2024. What are the chances of the Swiss team, and how well do you know the opponents?
Jovan Radojevic: we firmly believe in our goals to qualify. It will be extremely tough, but it’s not impossible.
Romania is the group’s favorite as they have a good water polo tradition and experience on the international level.
Slovenia will be our direct concurrent for the second place. Despite not having a great league, they have a good group of experienced players, and in the last qualification, they won very clearly against Switzerland. Everything is possible on a good day and if we collectively call our best performance.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find enough information about Finland and their water polo, so we should be the favorites in this game.
wball.ch: there was a game against Finland in 2009, and I believe Switzerland won easily. (Editor’s Note: In fact, Switzerland won 11-3, as reported by tio.ch)
New generations need to practice more and better
wball.ch: based on your experience as a coach, what can be done in Switzerland differently to enable coaches of the national teams to have a broader and higher quality pool of players to select, ideally to close the gaps with other countries that have similar conditions (pools/infrastructure, amateur players) as in Switzerland?
Jovan Radojevic: I don’t want to sound negative, but the system needs to change. Playing for any national team represents a great honor and must be an additional motivation to train more. Entering the national team as a player in Switzerland is more straightforward than in other countries like Croatia or Hungary, so new generations need to practice more and better.
As for youth teams, the clubs are responsible for motivating more children to participate in a sport like water polo as with more players there is also a wider talent pool.
wball.ch: thank you for your time and good luck in Kranj.
